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Discourses 
Commemcrptive  of  the  Life  and  Work 
of 
Ghprles  Hodge 


^  :::--. 


^0-^'  Of  micP^ 


^i:^f/f:io.L^i^^^ 


BX  9225  .H6  D5  1879 

Discourses  commemorative  of 
the  life  and  work  of 


Warfield  Library 


DISCOURSES 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF  THE  LIFE  AXD  AVORK 


CHARLES  HODGE,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  DIRECTORS  AND  TRUSTEES  OF 
THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  AT  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESS    OF     HENRY    B.     A  S  II  M  E  A  D, 

Nos.  1102  &  1104  Sansom  Street. 
1879. 


ADDRESS 

BY 

/ 

WILLIAM  M.  PAXTON,  D.D.,  OF  NEW  YORK, 

AT   THE 

OBSEQUIES  OF  THE  REV.  DR.  HODGE, 

*  IX    THE 

FIRST  PKESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  OF  PRINCETON,  N.  J., 

JUNE  22,  187S. 


ADDRESS. 


This  is  a  sorrow  which  we  all  feel :  the  family  which 
is  bereaved  of  one  whom  they  so  fondly  loved ;  the 
Semiuary  which  loses  its  Patriarchal  head  ;  the  Profes- 
sors who  are  deprived  of  one  who  was  to  them  a  father, 
brother,  and  helper ;  the  College  from  which  is  taken 
one  of  its  wisest  and  most  experienced  trustees ;  the 
theological  students  who  mourn  for  an  instructor  whom 
they  revered,  at  whose  feet  they  sat  with  delight,  and 
around  whom  they  clustered  with  the  fondest  affection ; 
the  ministers  who  hfive  gathered  here  to-day  to  sorrow 
for  a  teacher  whose  memory  binds  them  in  fondest  asso- 
ciations with  this  sacred  place ;  and  this  whole  commu- 
nity— all  Princeton — is  afflicted  with  a  common  sorrow 
in  the  death  of  a  citizen  whose  memory  is  hallowed  in 
every  household,  whose  name  has  added  to  the  renown 
of  this  seat  of  learning,  and  whose  life  and  character 
has  thrown  around  it  the  halo  of  its  own  glory.  But, 
looking  beyond  our  personal  and  individual  sorrow,  we 
must  all  feel  that  this  bereavement  extends,  in  its  wider 
relations,  to  the  church,  the  country,  and  the  world. 

When  the  announcement  of  the  decease  of  Charles 
Hodge  is  made  by  the  telegraph  and  the  newspaper,  it 
will  send  a  thrill  of  sorrow  far  and  wide.  It  will  be 
felt  not  simply  in  one  church,  but  in  many — not  in  one 
nation,  but  in  many  nations.  There  are  few  men  in 
this  generation  who  have  linked  themselves  with  the 


6 

whole  world  by  so  many  strong  and  endearing  ties. 
How  many  Missionaries  in  the  ends  of  the  earth  will 
hear  this  message,  and  breathe  a  sigh  of  regret  that  one 
from  whom  they  caught  the  spirit  of  missions,  and  from 
whom  the  Gospel  has  sounded  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  has  been  called  to  rest  from  his  labors. 

The  forty-eight  Presbyterian  bodies  scattered  through- 
out the  wide  world  will  feel  that  a  standard-bearer,  a 
champion,  a  defender,  has  fallen  just  in  the  hour  when 
the  battle  thickens.  The  General  Assemblies  of  Scot- 
land and  Ireland,  who  delighted  to  do  him  honor  at  the 
celebration  of  his  Semi-Centennial,  will  mourn  that  the 
great  expounder  of  the  Augustinian  theology,  and  a 
leader  of  the  world's  thought,  has  passed  away.  Men 
of  intellect  and  education  of  all  classes  will  say  that  a 
great  man  and  a  prince  has  fallen  in  Israel ;  whilst 
Christians  of  many  denominations,  and  all  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  will  regret  that  one  who  taught,  by 
a  world-wide  influence,  that  the  name  of  Jesus  is  above 
every  name,  has  passed  from  among  the  living.  Oh, 
yes !  the  world  will  feel  his  loss,  and  we  as  individuals 
realize  to-day  only  too  keenly  that  he  is  gone. 

But  he  died  with  his  armor  on.     He  was  called 

"  Like  a  watch-worn  and  weary  sentinel 
To  put  his  armor  off  and  rest — in  lieaven." 

It  only  remains  for  us  to  recount  the  incidents  of  his 
life,  to  estimate  his  worth,  and  to  give  thanks  for  that 
divine  grace  which  endowed  him  with  so  many  virtues, 
and  equipped  him  for  so  much  usefulness. 

Charles  Houge  was  born  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
on  the  28th  day  of  December,  1797.  His  father  was 
Dr.  Hugh   Hodge,  a  physician   of  great  promise   and 


large  practice,  who  died  at  the  early  age  of  forty-three 
years,  leaving  a  widow  and  two  sons.  His  mother  was 
Maria  Blanchard,  of  Boston,  a  lady  of  rare  excellence 
and  endowments,  to  whom  both  these  distinguished 
brothers  were  greatly  indebted  for  their  mental  and 
moral  culture. 

In  a  brief  ftimily  record,  made  shortl}-  before  his 
death,  he  makes  this  mention  of  his  mother :  "  When 
my  father  died  he  left  a  widow  little  more  than  thirty 
years  old,  and  two  children ;  Hugh  Lenox  Hodge,  aged 
two  years,  and  the  present  writer,  aged  six  months.  It 
is  no  marvel  that  mothers  are  sacred  in  the  eyes  of 
their  children.  The  debt  they  owe  them  is  beyond  all 
estimate.  To  our  mother,  my  brother  and  myself,  under 
God,  owe  absolutely  everything.  To  us  she  devoted 
her  life.  For  us  she  prayed,  labored,  and  suffered." 
After  describing  the  commercial  embarrassments  which 
preceded  the  war  of  1812,  by  which  his  mother's  in- 
come was  almost  entirely  cut  off,  he  proceeds:  "This 
was  the  time  we  were  preparing  for  College.  Instead 
of  putting  her  children  oiY  her  hands,  and  leaving  them 
to  provide  for  themselves,  by  sacrificing  all  she  had, 
and  by  the  most  self-denying  economy,  she  succeeded 
in  securing  for  them  the  benefits  of  a  Collegiate  educa- 
tion. She  lived  long  enough  to  see  both  her  sons  set- 
tled in  life  and  heads  of  families." 

In  the  same  record  he  makes  mention  of  his  brother, 
Hugh  L.  Hodge,  who  afterwards  became  so  eminent 
both  as  a  physician  and  a  Christian.  '•  My  brother  was 
far  more  than  a  brother  to  me.  Although  only  eighteen 
months  my  senior,  he  assumed  from  the  first  the  office 
of  guardian.  He  always  went  first  in  the  dai-k.  1 
never  slept  out  of  his  arms  until  I  was  eleven  or  twelve 


8 

years  old.  I  have  now  distinctly  before  my  mind  the 
)-oom  in  which  that  crisis  of  my  life  occurred.  I  well 
recollect  how  quietly  after  blowing  out  the  candle  I 
jumped  into  bed  and  threw  the  cover  over  my  head. 
Having  lived  through  that  night  I  afterwards  got  on 
very  well."  But  the  kindness  of  his  brother  was  not 
confined  to  his  boyhood,  for  this  striking  record  follows : 
"  No  Professor  in  Princeton  was  ever  able  to  bring  up 
and  educate  a  family  of  children  on  his  salary.  My 
brother,  without  waiting  to  be  asked,  always  helped  me 
through.  He  seemed  to  regard  me  as  himself,  and  my 
children  as  his  own.  Although  he  rose  to  eminence  as 
a  physician  and  Professor  in  medicine,  he  was  revered 
principally  for  his  goodness." 

The  early  life  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  passed  in 
his  native  city,  Philadelphia.  At  twelve  years  of  age 
he  commenced  his  classical  studies  in  the  Academy  in 
Somerville,  New  Jersey,  and  afterwards  pursued  them 
in  a  school  in  Princeton.  He  entered  the  Sophomore 
class  •  in  Nassau  Hall  in  1812;  the  year  in  which  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green  became  President  of  the  Institution. 
About  this  time  his  earlier  religious  impressions  ripened 
into  a  decided  religious  character.  Upon  this  point,  in 
the  record  from  which  I  have  previously  quoted,  he 
says  :  "  Our  early  training  was  religious.  Our  mother 
was  a  Christian.  She  took  us  regularly  to  church,  and 
carefully  drilled  us  in  the  Westminster  Catechism. 
There  has  never  been  anything  remarkable  in  my  relig- 
ious experience,  unless  it  be  that  it  began  very  early. 
I  think  that  in  my  childhood  I  came  nearer  to  conforming 
to  the  Apostle's  injunction,  '  Pray  without  ceasing,'  than 
at  any  other  period  of  my  life.  As  far  as  I  can  remem- 
ber I  had  the  habit  of  thanking  God  for  everything  that 


9 

I  received,  nvid  of  asking  Ilim  for  everything  that  I 
wanted.  I  thought  of  God  as  an  everywhere  present 
being,  full  of  kindness  and  love,  who  would  not  be 
offended  if  children  talked  to  Him."  His  formal  con- 
nection with  the  church  was  in  December,  1814.  His 
friend,  Kinsey  Van  Dyke,  was  received  at  the  same 
communion.  Soon  after  a  remarkable  revival  of  religion 
commenced  in  the  College,  which  Dr.  Maclean  thinks 
originated  in  the  impression  made  upon  the  minds  of 
the  students  by  the  stand  which  these  two  young  men 
had  taken  upon  the  side  of  Christ.  The  pious  students 
were  greatly  encouraged  and  stimulated  to  greater 
pniyer  and  cflbrt.  The  result  was  a  divine  blessing 
under  which  a  large  number  of  students  were  converted 
and  brought  into  the  membership  of  the  church.  Among 
this  number  were  John  Johns,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Virginia,  and  Charles  P.  Mcllvaine,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Ohio,  Rev.  Ravaud  K.  Rogers,  so  well  known  in 
New  Jersey,  also  the  Rev.  Symmes  C.  Henry. 

Dr.  Hodge,  in  connection  with  this  revival,  among 
much  else  that  is  interesting,  but  which  time  will  not 
permit  us  to  quote,  mentions  the  names  of  two  students 
who,  he  said,  were  enshrined  in  his  memory  as  remark- 
able illustrations  of  the  power  of  goodness.  The  one 
was  Charles  B.  Storrs,  son  of  the  Rev.  Richard  S. 
Storrs,  of  Long  Meadow,  Mass.  The  other  was  John 
Newbold,  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Phila- 
delphia. Writing  of  the  latter,  he  says  :  "  For  a  series 
of  years  I  acted  upon  the  purpose  of  not  allowing  his 
memory  to  die  out  in  the  Seminary.  Therefore  once, 
at  least,  in  three  years — an  academic  generation  with 
us — I  held  him  up  as  an  example.  I  wished  to  make 
the  students  see  hoiv  much  good  can  he  done  hy  slmpl//  being 


10 


goocir  This  sentence  ends  the  record,  and  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  last  sentences  penned  by  our  venerated 
father.  It  is  a  sentence  worth}^  of  being  remembered, 
and  as  his  last  utterance  it  should  sink  into  our  hearts. 
"J  wished  to  make  the  students  see  hotv  much  good  can  he 
done  hy  shnjyly  being  good." 

Dr.  Hodge  graduated  from  Nassau  Hall  at  the  com- 
mencement in  1815.  On  that  occasion  he  delivered 
the  Valedictory,  and  received  the  second  honor  in  his 
class,  Bishop  Johns  having  taken  the  first.  The  following 
year  he  spent  in  study  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  1816 
he  entered  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  where 
Bishops  Johns  and  Mcllvaine  w^ere  again  his  classmates. 
The  friendship  thus  begun  between  these  three  remark- 
able men  continued  through  life.  Graduating  from  the 
Seminary  in  1819,  he  spent  the  following  winter  in  the 
study  of  Hebrew  in  Philadelphia.  This  was  done  at 
the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Alexander,  who  had  first  noticed 
him  as  a  boy  in  the  grammar-school,  and  having  fol- 
lowed him  with  a  watchful  eye  through  his  whole 
course,  had  now,  in  his  own  mind,  selected  him  as  a 
future  Professor  in  the  Seminary.  Dr.  Hodge  fre- 
quently said  that  the  most  startling  sentence  he  ever 
J  heard  in  his  life  was  Dr.  Alexander's  question,  "  Charles, 
how  would  you  like  to  be  a  Professor  in  the  Seminary?" 
Such  an  idea  had  never  before  entered  his  own  mind. 
In  1820,  he  w^as  appointed  as  assistant  teacher  of  the 
Oriental  languages.  In  1822,  he  was  elected  by  the 
General  Assembly  to  the  Chair  of  Biblical  Literature. 
To  complete  his  preparation  for  the  great  life-w^ork 
which  was  now  opening  before  him,  he  went  abroad  to 
pursue  a  wider  course  of  study  in  the  German  Univer- 
sities.    Two  years  were  thus  spent  in  ILdle,  Berlin, 


11 

and  Paris.  His  return  to  the  duties  of  his  chair  in  the 
Seminary  was  in  1828. 

In  1825,  he  commenced  the  publication  of  the  Bibli- 
cal Repertorf/.  It  was  at  first  restricted  to  selections  from 
foreign  works  in  the  department  of  Biblical  literature ; 
but  on  his  return  from  Europe  it  was  deemed  expedient 
to  enlarge  its  scope,  and  "  Princeton  Review'  was  added 
to  the  title.  Assisted  by  a  brilliant  and  effective  corps 
of  writers,  the  Review  soon  assumed  a  prominent  posi- 
tion among  the  leading  Quarterlies  of  the  age.  Its 
career  is  a  part  of  the  literary  history  of  the  country. 
It  was  a  great  formative  power  in  the  theology  of  the 
church.  It  was  in  this  that  Dr.  Hodge  developed  his 
great  powers.  His  articles,  characterized  by  such  mas- 
sive learning  and  logical  force,  soon  gave  him  the  posi- 
tion of  a  leader  in  theological  thought.  Upon  no  point 
of  doctrine  did  his  trumpet  ever  give  an  uncertain 
sound.  Controversy  was  inevitable,  and  his  blows  were 
hard,  and  his  logic  inexorable,  but  his  discussions  were 
dignified  and  courteous.  It  was  in  this  Review  that  his 
strength  became  apparent  to  the  world,  and  gave  him  such 
eminence  as  a  thinker.  For  a  period  of  forty-three  years, 
from  1825  to  1868,  he  sustained  the  intellectual  burden 
of  this  great  review,  with  no  other  compensation  than  the 
high  privilege  of  making  it  an  organ  for  upholding  sound 
doctrine  and  the  honor  of  our  common  Redeemer. 

In  the  year  1840,  Dr.  Hodge  was  transferred  to  the 
Chair  of  Systematic  Theology,  at  the  desire  of  Dr. 
Alexander,  whose  advancing  age  began  to  require  ex- 
emption from  heavy  work.  To  this  Polemic  Theology 
was  added  at  the  death  of  Dr.  Alexander  in  the  year 
1851.  On  these  departments  he  bestowed  the  most 
assiduous  labor  of  his  life.     He  wrote  and  re-wrote  his 


12 

lectures  with  great  care,  ever  keeping  abreast  of  the 
advance  of  the  times,  and  meeting  every  change  in  the 
complexion  and  hues  of  public  thought,  with  an  aptitude 
that  commanded  the  delight  and  admiration  of  the  stu- 
dents. Connected  with  all  these  labors  he  found  time 
to  prepare  arid  publish  the  numerous  other  w^orks  which 
have  commanded  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  the 
church. 

His  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which 
first  established  for  him  a  European  reputation,  and 
gave  him  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  sound  thinkers  in  all 
denominations,  was  issued  in  1835. 

His  "  Way  of  Life,"  in  which  the  great  thinker  was 
made  known  to  the  world  as  the  humble  and  devout 
Christian,  using  all  his  great  thoughts  to  promote  hu- 
mility, spirituality  and  love,  was  written  in  1841  when 
lying  on  his  back,  during  a  period  of  suffering,  when  it 
was  not  known  whether  the  issue  would  be  life  or  death. 

In  successive  years,  his  Commentaries  upon  First  and 
Second  Corinthians  and  Ephesians  were  published. 

His  great  work,  his  S/jstematic  Theology,  the  result  of 
all  the  labor  and  culture  of  his  life,  was  prepared  after 
he  had  reached  his  seventieth  year.  It  was  not  the 
publication  of  lectures  prepared  for  the  students,  but  a 
new  work  in  which  the  thought  was  re-cast,  and  the 
whole  re-written,  so  as  to  embody  the  results  of  his 
riper  wisdom  and  matured  scholarship.  This  is  the 
work  which  divine  Providence  had  prepared  him  to  exe- 
cute, and  for  the  completion  of  which  he  was  spared  to 
mature  old  age.  For  this,  his  students  had  been  anx- 
iously looking,  and  when  at  last  it  issued  from  the  press, 
many  hearts'  thanksgivings  were  uttered  to  God  for  his 
kindness  in  permitting  him  to  bestow  upon  the  church 


this  Thesaurus  of  thought  and  learning.  This  is  the 
work  which  will  transmit  his  fame  to  coming  genera- 
tions. His  great  distinction  as  a  theologian  is  his  logi- 
cal clearness  and  the  beautiful  balance  of  his  mental 
operations.  Some  theologians  are  distinguished  for 
their  power  in  handling  single  subjects.  They  seize 
salient  points  and  prove  and  enforce  them  with  great 
cogency ;  but  Dr.  Hodge  combined  wdth  this  power  the 
rare  faculty  of  presenting  a  subject  so  balanced  in  its 
connections  with  all  other  subjects,  as  to  exhibit  the 
harmony  of  the  whole  system.  It  was  this  that  made 
him  so  useful  and  satisfactory  as  a  teacher.  He  was 
never  obscure.  He  had  gone  through  the  subject  him- 
self, and  was  able  to  lead  the  student  in  a  plain  path. 
His  work  will  live  to  mould  thought  and  guide  inquiry 
for  generations  to  come.  It  is  an  anchorage  that  will 
keep  the  church  from  drifting  into  error.  There  are 
times  when  public  sentiment  seems  to  drift  by  the  force 
of  undercurrents ;  but  a  work  like  this  is  an  "  anchor 
sure  and  steadfast."  When  epidemical  influences  have 
spent  their  force,  and  calm  thought  returns,  the  exhi- 
bition of  truth  in  this  work  is  so  clear  and  cogent  that 
thoughtful  minds  under  its  guidance  will  return  to  the 
conviction,  that,  if  the  Scriptures  are  the  word  of  God, 
then  these  volumes  are  the  exposition  of  the  system  of 
doctrines  which  the  Scriptures  contain. 

The  event  of  central  interest  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Hodge 
was  his  Semi-Centennial  Celebration.  It  was  contrary 
to  his  own  feeling,  but  it  was  a  spontiineous  movement 
upon  the  part  of  the  students  and  friends  of  the  Semi- 
nary to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  Profes- 
sorship. It  is  so  unusual  to  find  one  who  is  spared  to 
complete  so  lengthy  a  period  of  labor,  and  so  many  cir- 


14 

cumstances  of  interest  and  importance  seemed  involved 
in  it,  that  he  was  compelled  to  sacrifice  his  personal 
feeling  to  gratify  the  loving  impulses  of  his  friends.  It 
was  a  day  long  to  be  remembered.  Loving  students 
gathered  from  every  part  of  the  land.  Many  of  them 
were  venerable  gray-haired  fathers  in  the  church.  They 
had  come  from  their  distant  homes,  drawn  by  a  power- 
ful constraint  to  look  once  more  upon  the  face  of  their 
aged  teacher,  and  amidst  the  stirring  remembrances  of 
their  early  days,  to  express  their  love  and  gratitude  to 
one  whom  God  had  made  to  them  a  source  of  so  much 
blessing.  It  was  common  on  that  day  to  hear  old  men, 
as  they  mentioned  his  name  to  each  other,  say,  under 
the  stirrings  of  youthful  emotions,  "I  never  so  loved 
any  man."  Scholars,  men  of  thought  and  learning, 
from  many  spheres.  Professors  in  other  institutions,  and 
men  of  rank  and  position  in  other  denominations — all 
came  to  do  him  honor.  The  General  Assembly  of  Ire- 
land sent  its  delegates  with  their  warmest  salutations. 
The  General  Assembly  of  Scotland  sent  an  official 
address,  recognizing  his  high  position,  and  his  claims 
upon  the  loyal  affections  of  all  Christian  people.  Pro- 
fessors and  representatives  from  other  Seminaries  and 
literary  institutions,  many  of  them  from  other  denomi- 
nations of  Christians,  were  present  to  unite  in  a  tribute 
of  respect  and  affection  which  few  men  in  the  history 
of  the  world  have  ever  been  permitted  to  call  forth. 
When  in  response  to  all  this  language  of  compliment 
and  affection,  that  aged  man  arose  and  spoke  like  a 
father  to  his  children,  in  the  simplest  utterances,  often 
choked  by  the  swelling  of  emotions ;  ascribing  all  honor 
to  God,  and  showing  how  little  credit  he  took  to  himself, 
attributing  the  efficiency  and  success  of  the  Seminary 


15 

to  his  honored  predecessors,  and  setting  forth  the  Scrip- 
tures as  the  source  of  all  truth,  and  Christ  as  the  centre 
of  all  hope,  the  hearts  of  all  were  m.elted  to  tenderness 
at  the  thought  of  that  grace  which  can  make  greatness 
so  humble,  and  produce  of  the  wreck  of  the  Fall  such 
a  beautiful  specimen  of  sanctified  humanity. 

Dr.  Hodge  was  permitted  to  continue  his  labors  to  the 
end.  Though  relieved  for  the  past  year  by  the  assist- 
ance of  his  son,  he  continued  the  discharge  of  his  duties 
in  the  Seminary  to  the  end  of  the  last  term ;  and  when 
the  students  gathered  around  him  to  receive  his  bene- 
diction, he  was  so  well  and  cheerful  that  it  seemed  as 
though  he  might  be  spared  to  equip  still  other  laborers 
for  the  harvest.  His  last  public  sermon  was  at  the 
funeral  of  his  life-long  friend.  Professor  Henry,  in 
Washington  City.  Shortly  after,  an  attack  of  pain  re- 
sulted in  a  prostration  under  which  he  gradually  sunk. 
He  was  fully  aware  of  his  approaching  end,  and  looked 
for  it  wdth  the  quietude  and  calmness  that  characterized 
his  life.  It  was  the  event  for  which  his  whole  life  was 
a  preparation.  He  met  death  as  a  familiar  friend.  He 
had  never  been  accustomed  to  talk  of  his  own  experi- 
ence, and  his  feebleness  did  not  permit  him  any  indul- 
gence of  emotion  now.  Occasional  words  indicated  the 
direction  of  his  thought.  He  silently  revolved  in  his 
mind  verses  of  hymns  and  passages  of  Scripture,  and 
he  sometimes  remarked  that  his  memory  was  failing, 
that  he  could  not  remember  the  clauses  and  connections 
as  he  wished.  When  a  member  of  his  family  burst  into 
tears  at  his  bed-side,  he  took  her  hand  and  said,  "  Do 
not  grieve.  To  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to  be  with 
the  Lord,  to  be  with  the  Lord  is  to  see  the  Lord,  to  see 
the  Lord  is  to  be  like  Him."     With  this  simple  faith  he 


16 

passed  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.  It  is  a  comfort  for  us 
to  think  that  he  was  permitted  to  finish  his  course,  and 
fulfil  his  mission  in  life.  His  period  of  labor  has  not 
many  parallels.  He  had  been  a  teacher  in  this  Semi- 
nary for  fifty-eight  years,  and  a  professor  for  fifty-six. 
Dr.  Miller  had  filled  his  chair  for  thirty-six  years,  and 
Dr.  Alexander  for  thirty-nine. 

Human  life  is  often  a  record  of  purposes  broken  off 
in  the  midst,  and  of  usefulness  suddenly  terminated. 
The  most  affecting  prayer  that  David  ever  uttered  was, 
"  0  Lord,  take  me  not  away  in  th5  midst  of  my  days." 
He  prayed  against  death,  he  prayed  for  life  to  complete 
his  plans  and  purposes.  David  had  it  in  his  heart  to 
build  the  temple,  but  he  had  to  lie  down  and  die  long 
before  the  work  was  accomplished  ;  and  so  it  often  is. 
The  young  man  is  cut  down  in  the  very  dew  of  his 
youth,  just  when  the  vision  of  life  is  opening  before 
him.  The  husbandman  has  to  leave  the  plough  in  the 
furrow,  the  artist  his  half-finished  picture  upon  the  can- 
.vas,  the  merchant  his  business  just  when  fortune  is 
within  his  grasp,  the  minister  has  to  leave  his  pulpit 
just  when  his  heart  is  yearning  to  bring  other  souls  into 
the  garner. 

But  it  was  permitted  our  revered  father  to  labor  on 
to  the  very  shades  of  evening,  and  to  fill  out  the  full 
measure  of  human  existence.  After  seeing  the  plans 
and  purposes  of  his  life  consummated,  he  might  have 
said  as  the  Master  did,  at  least  in  a  modified  sense,  "  I 
have  glorified  Thee  upon  the  earth.  I  have  finished  the 
work  which  Thou  gavest  me  to  do." 

Such  is  the  record  of  his  life.  Time  will  not  permit 
us  to  enter  into  a  detailed  estimate  of  his  character  and 
worth.     To  the  world  he  is  known  as  a  great  theologian. 


17 

but  we  who  knew  him  better  feel  assured  that  as  a 
Christian  he  was  greater  still.  His  growth  and  develop- 
ment in  intellect  and  knowledge  was  only  exceeded  by 
his  growth  in  grace.  His  great  thoughts  had  a  reflex 
spiritual  influence  in  stimulating  spirituality  and  exciting 
devotion.  The  truth  which  he  thought,  was  the  truth  upon 
which  his  soul  lived.  His  conception  of  God  seemed  an 
ever  present  realization,  and  the  love  of  Christ  was  ever 
warm  in  his  heart.  He  was  always  humble,  tender, 
loving,  and  devotional^Avith  mighty  strength  of  thought 
he  combined  so  much  that  was  gentle,  tender,  and  emo- 
tional, that  he  always  appeared  to  the  students  as  the 
impersonation  of  the  Apostle  John.\  He  was  so  sincere 
that  no  one  ever  left  his  class-room  with  any  doubt  of 
his  cordial  belief  of  every  word  he  uttered,  or  of  his 
deep  experience  of  the  truth  in  his  own  soul,  His 
heart  was  very  impressible,  and  the  truth  often  pro- 
duced within  him  a  sudden  gush  of  emotion.  It  was 
this  that  gave  him  moments  of  power  in  the  pulpit. 
His  preaching  was  ordinarily  calm,  and  his  current  of 
thought  too  deep  for  popular  impression.  But  there 
were  times  when  the  momentary  swell  of  sudden  and 
tender  emotion  made  him  a  powerful  orator.  No  one 
who  was  present  will  ever  forget  an  impromptu  address 
which  he  delivered  in  the  First  Church,  in  Princeton, 
about  the  time  his  son  sailed  as  a  missionary  for  India. 
His  fatherly  aff'ection  working  in  unison  with  his  religious 
feeling,  awoke  him  to  a  power  of  pathos  which  thrilled 
that  whole  assembly  with  a  wonderful  impulse.  Another 
instance  of  a  similar  kind  occurred  at  the  funeral  of 
Professor  Dod.  They  had  been  intimate  friends.  They 
were  both  great  thinkers,  and  had  often  talked  together 
upon  the  greatest  themes.     Dr.  Hodge  had  been  with 


18 

Professor  Dod  in  his  last  hours,  when  his  heart  had 
been  opened  to  speak  of  Christ  and  his  dying  confidence. 
AA'ith  these  powerful  impressions  upon  his  mind  he  arose 
to  deliver  his  funeral  address.  Professor  Dod  had  left 
with  him  a  message  for  the  college  students.  When  he 
came  to  that  point  in  his  discourse,  his  heart  swelled, 
and  lifting  his  head  from  the  manuscript,  he  stood  erect, 
and  waving  his  hand  to  the  students  who  sat  in  the 
gallery,  whilst  the  tears  poured  down  his  face,  he  deliv- 
ered the  message  with  a  gust  of  emotion  that  went 
through  that  audience  like  the  sweep  of  a  storm  through 
the  forest.  All  hearts  were  broken,  and  for  the  moment 
were  held  and  swayed  by  a  mighty  power.  The  scene 
stands  before  my  mind  this  moment  as  the  most  power- 
ful effect  of  oratory  which  I  have  ever  witnessed. 

■  To  sum  up  all,  I  may  say  that  when  due  allowance  is 
made  for  his  intellect  and  his  learning,  after  all  his  chief 
power  was  in  his  goodness.  Christ  enshrined  in  his 
heart  was  the  centre  of  his  theology  and  his  life.  The 
world  will  write  upon  his  monument  great  ;  but  we,  his 
students  will  write  upon  it  good.  He  was  as  good  as  he 
was  great. 

There  is  a  picture  of  Thomas  Aquinas  which  repre- 
sents him  as  bowing  before  a  crucifix,  when  the  Master 
addressing  him,  says  :  "  Thomas,  thou  hast  written  well 
concerning  me.  What  reward  wilt  thou  have  for  thyself 
for  all  that  thou  hast  done  for  me  ?"  To  this  he  answers  : 
"Nothing  but  thyself.  Lord."  This  answer  embodies 
the  very  spirit  and  life  of  our  departed  father.  He 
wrote  and  toiled  for  Jesus,  and  if  he  had  been  asked, 
"What  reward  wilt  thou  have  for  thyself?"  he  would 
have  answered  : 

"  Nothinii;  but  thyself,  Lord."" 


A  TRIBUTE 


INTRODUCTORY    TO   THE 


OPENING  LECTURE  OF  THE  SESSION  OF  1878-9, 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 


SEPTEMBER   6,  1878, 


BY  PROF.   CHARLES  A.  AIKEN,  D.D. 


TRIBUTE. 


When  the  head  of  a  household  has  been  taken  away, 
a  very  dear  and  precious  home  may  remain  to  those  who 
are  left  behind,  and  j^et  for  a  time  it  will  be  very  far 
from  home-like.  A  great  void  must  be  faced  whichever 
way  they  turn.  Reverence  misses  an  object  before 
which  it  has  delighted  to  bow;  affection  an  object  to 
which  it  has  loved  to  bring  its  tributes  and  render  its 
choicest  ministries.  Counsel  must  now  be  taken  for 
themselves  and  their  common  interests  by  those  who, 
if  they  have  outgrown  the  period  in  which  they  were 
passive  objects  of  care,  have  still  instinctively  submitted 
all  their  plans  to  be  moulded  by  the  ripe  wisdom,  the 
larger  experience,  the  tender,  shielding  thoughtfulness 
that  are  now  withdrawn  from  over  them.  To  attempt 
to  walk  in  one's  later  and  more  responsible  way — in  the 
spirit  and  in  the  steps  of  him  who  is  gone — is  not  quite 
the  same  thing  as  to  walk  by  the  side  and  under  the 
shadow  of  one,  nearness  to  whom  has  of  itself  developed 
security  and  created  a  habit  of  dependence. 

As  we  gather  here  to-day  we  cannot  feel  that  we  are 
quite  at  home.  A  place  is  empty,  a  voice  is  silent ; 
such  a  place,  and  such  a  voice  !  A  feeling  of  strange- 
ness is  upon  us  all.  To  be  without  the  presiding  pres- 
ence of  him  whose  connection  with  the  Seminary  dates 
from  its  fifth  year,  who  was  for  one  generation  the 
trusted  and  honored   junior  colleague  of  its  venerated 


22 

fathers,  and  who  for  another  generation  was  himself  its 
senior  Professor,  will  not  easily  become  natural  to  us.  His 
character  and  services  have  long  been  a  large  part  of 
our  treasure.  And  while  this  blessed  past  is  secure, 
and  while  this  grand  influence  is  to  us  more  than  to  any 
others  immortal,  we  are  now  by  his  translation  thrown 
back  on  what  has  been  spoken,  written,  lived  by  him, 
and  cannot  come  as  beforetime  for  counsel,  teaching, 
inspiration  to  the  living,  loving  man. 

Great  has  been  our  privilege,  and  great  has  been  our 
pride  in  his  presence.  To  be  under  the  influence  of  his 
broad  and  admirably  balanced  views  of  truth ;  his  ample, 
well  compacted  and  varied  learning  with  respect  to 
truth  and  error ;  his  clearness,  thoroughness,  steadfast- 
ness of  conviction  concerning  the  truths  that  are  funda- 
mental and  vital ;  his  chivalrous  loyalty  to  truth,  and 
above  all  his  determination  and  power  in  tracing  and 
exhibiting  the  connections  of  all  real  truth  with  Him 
who  is  "  the  Truth ;"  who  can  estimate  the  intellectual 
A''alue  to  us  of  all  this  ?  But  it  was  more  than  this  that 
to  be  near  him  was  of  itself  an  impulse  to  holiness. 
To  him  more  than  to  any  other  man  I  ever  knew  had 
the  grace  been  given  not  only  to  "  bring  into  captivity 
ever}^  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,"  but  to  draw 
the  motives  of  life  from  Christ,  and  to  find  the  daily 
strength  and  joy  of  life  in  Christ.  Partly  of  nature, 
but  more  of  grace,  was  his  tender  love,  "  passing  the  love 
of  women ;"  his  most  catholic  sympathy  with  all  who 
held  to  Christ ;  his  scrupulous  desire  and  effort  to  do 
generous  justice  to  men  whose  errors  he  might  still 
deem  grave,  and  to  manifest  the  charity  which  Paul 
commends  (and  of  which  his  life  was  a  richer  exposi- 
tion than  even  the   prized  instructions  of  the  lecture 


23 

room  unci  the  Cuiiimentary)  ;  his  humble,  natural  forget- 
fulness  and  disparagement  of  himself  and  of  his  due. 
If  men  here  and  there,  disliking  his  views  of  truth,  trans- 
ferred to  him  their  hard  judgments  of  the  faith  which 
the  church  will  evermore  identify  with  his  name,  we  can 
only  wish  that  they  had  known  him  better.  To  us  his 
character  and  life  gave  krge  endorsement  to  his  views. 

Another  occasion  wnll,  it  is  hoped,  before  the  session 
is  far  advanced,  bring  before  us  a  more  careful  and  com- 
plete tribute  to  his  worth  and  work,  from  one  whose 
opportunities  of  knowing  him  were  exceeded  only  by 
the  admiration  and  devotion  that  grew  out  of  them. 
But  to-day  my  lips  would  refuse  to  utter  a  word  on  any 
other  theme,  did  I  not  first  endeavor  (and  the  more 
eagerly  as  one  not  to  this  manner  born,  but  adopted  into 
the  famil}^)  to  give  voice  in  a  few  sad  and  sincere,  how- 
ever inadequate,  sentences  to  that  which  burdens  the 
hearts  of  us  all. 

From  the  pulpit  we  had  reluctantly  learned  to  be- 
come accustomed  to  his  enforced  absence.  The  neces- 
sity is  upon  us  of  becoming  wonted  to  his  absence  from 
the  lecture  room,  the  conference  room,  the  communion 
service,  our  faculty  consultations,  and  the  thousand 
forms  of  individual  intercourse  with  him,  in  which  ad- 
miration, reverence,  love,  delight,  gratitude  were  strug- 
gling for  ascendency  in  us.  We  gird  ourselves  for  new 
tasks.  His  lips  and  his  life  have  taught  us  to  whom  to 
look  both  for  large  consolation  and  for  adequate  sup- 
plies of  grace. 


MEMORIAL  DISCOUESE 


DELIVEUED    IX    THE 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  PRINCETON,  N.  .1. 


APllIL  27,  1879, 


By  PIENRY  a.  BOARDMAN,  D.D., 


OF   PHILADELPHIA. 


DISCOURSE 


"  The  Discii'LE  whom  Jesu's  loved." — John  xxi.  20. 

The  only  flaws  which  even  microscopic  unbelief 
claims  to  have  detected  in  the  ethical  system  of  the 
New^  Testament,  are  these  two,  viz. :  that  it  fails  to  in- 
culcate the  virtues  of  patriotism  and  of  friendship. 
AVithout  adverting  to  the  former,  it  is  rather  amusing 
to  be  told,  that  the  obligations  of  friendship  arc  ignored 
by  a  book  which  sums  up  the  entire  duty  of  man 
towards  his  fellows  in  the  precept,  ''  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  and  the  whole  tendency  of 
whose  teachings  and  ordinances  is,  to  bring  the  race 
together  in  a  universal  brotherhood.  The  book,  how- 
ever, goes  C|uite  beyond  this  ;  for,  not  content  with  en- 
joining the  duty,  it  supplies  numerous  examples  of  true 
friendship,  and  among  them  the  most  illustrious  instance 
to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  our  race. 

We  are  not  at  liberty  to  doubt  that  our  blessed  Lord 
entertained  a  strong  personal  affection  for  each  one  of 
his  apostles,  Judas  alone  excepted.  But  there  were 
three  of  them  wdiom  He  honored  with  si)ecial  marks  of 
His  esteem  and  confidence.  As  among  the  loved,  they 
were  the  more  beloved ;  and,  as  among  the  more  be- 
loved, one  was  the  most  loved  of  all.  Peter,  James 
and  John  were  permitted  to  be  with  Him  when  He  re- 
called the  daughter  of  Jairus  to  life,  in  the  glory  of  His 


28 

transfiguration,  in  His  memorable  discourse  (to  which 
Andrew  also  was  a  listener)  on  the  coming  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  and  in  His  agony  in  the  garden.  But 
upon  John  He  bestowed  other  tokens  of  His  friendship, 
which  were  shared  by  none  of  his  brethren.  He  was, 
by  pre-eminence,  ^HJie  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved!'  So 
undisguised  was  this  partiality,  that  this  beautiful  peri- 
phrasis became,  naturally  enough,  his  own  mode  of 
speaking  of  himself.  •  Four  times  over  does  he  use  it  in 
his  Gospel,  and  in  relations  which  show  that  the  other 
apostles  understood  and  recognized  the  place  he  held  in 
their  Master's  esteem.  Of  the  reasons  for  this  prefer- 
ence we  are  not  informed;  but  it  is  not  diilicult  to 
believe  that  John's  character  was  one  to  attract  the 
sympathy  and  affection  of  his  Lord.  By  nature  frank, 
ardent,  decided,  courageous,  a  very  "  sou  of  thunder," 
he  was  at  the  ^ame  time  gentle,  loving,  and  confiding,  a 
very  "  son  of  consolation."  It  was  both  proof  and  illus- 
tration of  his  position  with  his  Master,  that  he  should 
have  received  at  His  hands  that  opulent  store  of  gifts 
and  graces  which  we  trace  in  every  line  he  wrote.  In- 
flexible in  his  maintenance  of  the  truth,  and  stern  in 
his  rebuke  of  errorists,  the  whole  strain  of  his  Epistles 
shows  that,  like  his  Saviour,  love  was  the  element  in 
which  he  lived,  and  moved,  and  had  his  being. 

Again,  what  a  scene  was  that  at  the  last  supper.  We 
read  of  it  without  stopping  to  picture  it  to  ourselves, — 
John  leaning  his  head  upon  that  sacred  breast,  which  he 
could  not  have  done  unless  Jesus'  arm  was  around 
him — the  attitude,  of  all  others,  expressive  of  tender, 
mutual  affection. 

Yet  if  this  impresses  us,  what  must  be  thought  of 
that  wonderful  spectacle  at  the  cross,  when  our  adorable 


29 

Redeemer,  amidst  the  jeers  of  tlie  crowd  and  the  agonies 
of  crucifixion,  commits  His  weeping  mother  to  the  care, 
of  this  chosen  disciple:  ''Woman,  behold  thy  son!" 
"Behold  thy  mother!"  thus  putting  John  in  His  own 
place,  and  joining  together  in  this  hallowed  union  the 
two  people  most  honored  of  God  at  that  time  among  the 
millions  of  the  race,  and  whom  He  himself  loved  above 
all  others  in  the  world. 

Still  further  honor  is  to  be  lavished  ui)on  the  beloved 
disciple  after  his  Lord's  ascension.  Three  evangelists 
were  inspired  to  record  the  principal  acts,  the  miracles, 
the  parables,  and  some  of  the  discourses  of  the  great 
Teacher.  But  there  was  still  needed  a  narrative  which 
should  be  made  up  mainly  of  His  own  words ;  which 
should  set  the  God-man  more  distinctly  before  us ;  which 
should  reveal  to  us  more  of  the  inner  life  of  that  mys- 
terious nature,  and  open  to  us  the  way  for  a  more  inti- 
mate communion  with  Him.  When  such  a  biography 
was  to  be  written,  who  but  John  could  be  appointed  to 
the  exalted  office  ?  Is  it  fjinciful  to  suggest  that  he  may 
have  written  every  line  of  it,  with  the  blessed  mother, 
whom  he  had  "taken  to  his  own  house,"  sitting  at  his 
side?  And  what  nobler  distinction  could  have  been 
conferred  upon  him,  than  that  of  being  commissioned  to 
write  the  book  of  which  Q\QYy  Christian,  of  whatever 
age  or  land,  would  say,  "  If  I  must  be  deprived  of  all 
the  books  of  the  Bible  l)ut  one,  leave  me  the  Gospel  of 
John."  . 

One  crowning  token  of  his  Master's  love  remains. 
The  glorified  Kedeemer,  arrayed  in  Ilis  coronation 
robes,  condescends  to  visit  Ilis  aged  servant  in  his  exile, 
to  "speak  to  him  face  to  face,  as  a  man  spe;iketh  unto 
his  friend,"   to   draw  aside  for  him   the  curtain  which 


30 

hides  the  future  from  every  eye  but  that  of  Omniscience, 
and  to  instruct  him  to  depict,  as  on  a  glowing  canvas, 
the  fortunes  of  the  church  and  of  the  world  for  all  the 
coming  ages.  He  thus  becomes  the  only  prophet  whose 
predictions  will  find  their  term  only  wdien  time  itself 
expires. 

When  the  centurion  saw  the  marvels  which  attended 
the  crucifixion,  he  exclaimed,  "  Truly,  this  was  the  Son 
of  God."  So,  when  the  facts  that  have  now  been  so 
inadequately  stated  are  duly  considered,  every  one 
must  be  ready  to  say,  "  Truly,  this  was  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved." 

And  what  Scripture  could  be  suggested  more  appro- 
priate to  the  present  seryice — a  service,  I  may  be  ex- 
cused for  adding,  which  I  have  consented  to  share  with 
my  brethren,  not  because  I  feel  myself  at  all  equal  to 
its  just  requirements,  but  first,  because  there  are  re- 
quests which  have  the  authority  of  commands;  and 
secondly,  because  an  intimate,  confidential  friendship 
running  through  forty-five  years,  imposes  obligations 
which  it  were  treason  to  the  promptings  of  one's  own 
affections  to  contemn. 

Having  accepted  the  invitation  thus  proffered  through 
the  courtesy  of  the  venerable  Faculty  of  our  Seminary, 
and  of  those  whose  wishes  were  first  of  all  to  be  con- 
sidered, this  text  immediately  offered  itself  as  the 
proper  foundation  for  the  proposed  exercise.  It  is  not 
the  sort  of  Scripture  which  a  stranger  to  Dr.  Hodge — 
one  who  knew  him  only  through  his  writings — would 
have  selected.  But  you.  Christian  brethren,  among 
whom  he  lived  and  who  were  in  habits  of  fiimiliar  inter- 
course with  him,  instinctively  think  of  him  as  holding 
the  same  kind  of  relation  to  the   Saviour  as  that  to 


31 

which  the  beloved  disciple  was  admitted.  It  is  easy  to 
imagine  him,  were  Jesns  again  upon  the  earth,  as  lean- 
ing upon  that  sacred  bosom,  clasped  by  the  same  lovini:- 
hand.  Nor  will  one  of  you  dissent  when  it  is  aOiimed, 
that  could  he  have  been  consulted  while  living,  or  could 
his  voice  come  to  us  at  this  moment,  all  the  ascriptions 
of  extraordinary  talents,  of  immense  learning,  of  per- 
sonal worth,  and  pre-eminent  usefulness,  accorded  to  him 
by  the  wise  and  good  of  two  hemispheres,  would  have 
gone  with  him  for  chaff,  as  weighed  against  that  simple 
title.  The  disciple  zvhom  Jesus  loved.  Rare  gifts  he 
had  of  nature  and  of  grace,  gifts  enlarged  and  multi- 
plied by  unceasing,  conscientious  study,  and  carried  ui» 
to  the  highest  reach  of  culture.  But,  like  the  great 
apostle,  love  pervaded  and  controlled  all  his  powers. 
The  earthly  objects  of  his  affection  well  knew^  its  fervor 
and  tenderness.  But  it  craved,  and  in  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth it  found,  the  only  Friend  who  could  fully  satisfy  its 
yearnings.  As  his  whole  theology  was  a  Christology, 
so  love  to  Christ  was  the  essential  principle  of  his  entire 
being ;  the  well-spring  which  gave  flow^  and  direction  to 
his  every  current  of  thought  and  feeling.  And  the  love 
of  Christ  to  him  w^as  the  supreme  joy  of  his  life,  the' 
secret  of  that  bright,  serene  atmosi)here  which  always 
infolded  him,  and  of  which  even  casual  visitors  felt  the 
charm. 

"  The  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  !"  He  so  loved  him 
as  to  array  him  in  all  the  graces  of  the  Spirit  with  a 
fulness  vouchsafed  only  to  a  few  among  the  most  favored 
of  His  chosen.  He  so  loved  him  as  to  endow  him  with 
a  profusion  of  noble  intellectual  powers,  and  to  place 
and  keep  him  in  a  position  where  he  could  use  them  to 
the  best  possible  purpose  for  the  welfare  of  the  church 


32 

and  of  the  race.  He  so  loved  him  as  to  commission 
him  to  become,  by  common  consent,  the  ablest  ex- 
pounder, in  our  day,  and  the  foremost  defender,  of  the 
evangelical  faith.  He  so  loved  him  as  to  clothe  him 
(not  exclusively,  but  in  his  measure)  with  the  high  re- 
sponsibility of  educating  three  thousand  young  men  for 
the  Christian  ministry,  a  larger  body  than  has  been  en- 
trusted to  the  tutelage  of  any  teacher  of  the  present 
century.'''  He  so  loved  him  that,  although  occupying  a 
most  conspicuous  position  "where  he  could  not  be  hid," 
and  engaged  in  numerous  controversies  adapted  to  evoke 
whatever  of  evil  there  may  be  slumbering  in  the  breast, 
he  passed  tlirough  life  unchallenged  as  to  his  spotless 
integrity  and  the  purity  of  his  motives,  and,  in  fact, 
without  a  single  stain  upon  his  character.  He  so  loved 
him,  that  having  made  him. an  object  of  universal  re- 
spect and  confidence,  of  loving  admiration  and  eulogy, 
above  almost  any  of  his  contemporaries,  such  abounding 
grace  was  given  him  that  no  word  of  self-complacency 
ever  escaped  his  lips,  nor  could  the  most  watchful  eye 
or  ear  ever  detect  in  his  tone  or  manner  any  other  feel- 
ing than  that  of  the  great  apostle,  "  Not  I,  but  the  grace 
of  God  which  is  with  me."  And  all  this  for  eighty 
years  !  Are  we  not  justified  in  citing  as  his  prototype 
"  The  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved"  ? 

This  is  so  easily  said,  that  any  friendly  tongue  might 
have  uttered  it.  But  now  that  the  threshold  is  crossed, 
who  is  to  choose  our  way  for  us  ?  It  is  not  the  preacher, 
l)ut  the  biographer,  whose  pen  must  be  invoked  here. 
That  life,  so  simple  in  its  outward  incidents  that  it  may 
be  summed  up  in  a  few  sentences,  wears  so  many  differ- 

*  His  friend,  the  late  Professor  Tholuck,  may,  possibly,  he  entitled  to 
share  this  distinction  with  him. 


ent  aspects,  links  itself  with  so  many  momentous  inter- 
ests, and  blends  so  indissolubly  with  the  world's  progress 
and  the  church's  glory,  that  it  were  unpardonable°pre- 
sumption  to  attempt  to  compress  any  adequate  estimate 
.  of  it  within  the  limits  of  a  single  discourse.  The  pulpit 
and  the  press  have  Tied  with  each  other  in  extolling 
some  of  its  more  commanding  features.  I  shall  bu^t 
follow  in  their  steps,  adverting  to  a  few  only  of  the 
topics  which  press  for  a  hearing,  and,  as  to  a  part 
of  these,  repeating  substantially  what  has  been  said 
before. 

How  indelible  was  the  impress  his  character  received 
from  the  hands  of  his  widowed  mother,  may  be  seen  in 
his  remark  so  often  quoted,  that  himself  and  his  brother, 
Hugh  Lenox  Hodge,  that  eminent  Christian  phj^sician 
whose  name  adorns  the  annals  of  the  medical  profession, 
owed  all  that  they  were  to  their  mother.  Passing  over 
the  experiences  of  his  College  and  Seminary  life,  his 
election  by  the  General  Assembly  to  the  Chair  of  Orien- 
tal and  Biblical  Literature  in  our  Seminary,  and  his 
three  years  of  study  in  Paris,  Halle,  and  Berlin,  we 
greet  him  as  the  founder  and  editor  of  the  "  Biblical 
Repertory  and  Princeton  Review." 

Two  thoughts  must  suggest  themselves  to  any  one 
who  runs  his  eye  through  the  successive  volumes  of  this 
great  Quarterly,  to  wit,  the  tireless  industry  of  the 
editor,  and  his  insatiate  craving  for  knowledge.  The 
two  were  clasped  together.  He  could  not  be  idle. 
Without  the  least  token  of  that  disquiet  and  flurry  so 
often  betrayed  by  earnest  students,  he  prosecuted  his 
laborious  work  with  a  diligence  that  never  flagged,  and 
a  composure  which  savored  more  of  pleasant  pastime 
than  of  toil.      Even  severe   bodily  infirmity   laid   no 


34 

arrest  upon  his  busy  tand  and  pen. — Let  me  pause  here 
for  a  moment  to  say  that  as  it  is  not  the  way  of  divine 
Providence  to  form  a  character  of  consummate  excel- 
lence without  the  discipline  of  suffering,  so  Dr.  Hodge's 
case  forms  no  exception  to  this  general  law.  A  weak- 
ness in  the  right  hip,  aggravated  by  a  pedestrian  tour 
through  the  Alps  in  182S,  was  brought  to  a  crisis  and 
assumed  a  malignant  form  while  he  was  wearisomely 
canvassing  the  city  of  New  York  for  funds  to  build  the 
Seminary-chapel.  For  five  years  he  had  been  unable  to 
walk  without  great  discomfort,  and  this  was  followed  by 
a  close  confinement  to  his  couch,  attended  with  intense 
pain,  for  four  years.  It  was  during  this  visitation  oT 
suffering,  which  baffled  the  best  medical  skill  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  that  he  wrote  several  of  his 
most  elaborate  Review-articles,  and  the  major  part  of 
that  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which 
instantly  raised  him  to  a  place  among  the  first  Biblical 
critics  of  the  age.  After  this,  one  is  prepared  to  hear 
that  the  aggregate  fruits  of  his  authorship  rival  in  bulk, 
and  not  less  in  value,  those  of  the  great  Puritan  writers. 
One  of  the  shelves  of  my  library  is  graced  with  the 
works  of  John  Owen,  in  twenty-one  solid  octavo  vol- 
umes. A  kindred  series  of  twenty-one  volumes  would 
grace  an  adjoining  shelf,  if  the  works  of  Charles  Hodge 
were  collected  and  published  in  a  uniform  edition. 

Having  mentioned  his  "  Romans,"  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  quote  just  here  an  observation  he  made  to  me 
several  years  later.  "  Our  rule  here  is  to  urge  Addison 
(his  familiar  way  of  speaking  of  Dr.  J.  Addison  Alex- 
ander) to  do  whatever  we  can  find  he  is  iviUing  to  do. 
After  much  solicitation,  he  has  now  consented  to  unite 
with  us  in  preparing  a  Commentary  on  the  New  Testa- 


ment ;  Addison  to  take  the  Gospels  and  the  Book  of 
Acts,  his  brother  James  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  I  the 
other  Epistles."  It  is  by  reason  of  this  arrangement, 
that  we  now  have  among  our  choicest  Biblical  treasures, 
Hodge  on  First  and  Second  Corinthians  and  on  Ephe- 
sians,  and  Alexander  on  The  Acts,  St.  Mark's  Gospel, 
and  the  earlier  chapters  of  St.  Matthew.  How  sadly 
the  scheme  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  inscrutable 
Providence  which  removed  Professor  Addison  Alexander 
in  the  very  prime  of  his  days,  needs  not  to  l)e  related 
here. 

Recurring  to  the  "  Repertory,"  it  will  not  l)e  amiss  to 
repeat  a  remark  which  fell  from  the  editor's  lips  in  the 
year  1865,  to  the  effect,  that  he  "had  carried  it  as  a 
ball  and  chain  for  forty  years,  with  scarcely  any  other 
compensation  than  the  privilege  of  making  it  an  organ 
for  upholding  sound  Presbyterianism,  and  the  honor  of 
our  common  Redeemer."  How  characteristic  of  the 
man ;  and  what  a  reproach  to  the  church  he  loved  and 
served  so  well !  That  he  should  be  willing  to  endure  all 
this  unrequited  toil  and  sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  truth 
and  the  well-being  of  others,  was  in  keeping  with  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  life.  If  he  had  any  fault  in  this  di- 
rection, it  lay  in  an  excess  of  self-forgetfulness.  The 
nobility  of  his  nature  raised  him  even  above  the  maxims 
of  ordinary  prudence.  Never  but  once  in  all  my  inti- 
mate relations  with  him,  did  he  allude  to  the  very  large 
pecuniary  sacrifice  which  his  professorship  had  involved; 
nor  did  he  add  a  single  word  of  complaint.  But  his 
glory  herein  is  our  shame.  It  is  not  meet  that  a  great 
and  opulent  church  should  receive  priceless  benefits  at 
the  hands  of  one  of  its  servants  whom  it  shackles  with 
a  ball  and  chain  for  forty  years. 


30 

Our  present  concern,  however,  is  with  the  Repertory 
dimply  as  an  index  to  the  stores  of  knowledge  garnered 
)y  its  editor  from  so  many  fields,  old  and  new,  near  and 
remote.  The  venerable  Dr.  Alexander  once  said  to  me, 
•My  son  James  has  always  been  a  sort  of  walking 
OyclopcTdia."  A  cursory  examination  of  the  Revieiv  will 
.-how  that  this  was  no  less  true  of  Dr.  Hodge.  More 
than  one  hundred  and  forty  essays  from  his  pen  enrich 
its  pages.  In  these  he  has  dealt  with  almost  every 
leading  question  in  theology,  in  ecclesiology,  in  meta- 
physics, in  church  policy,  and  in  public  morality,  which 
has  emerged  out  of  the  conflicts  of  the  last  fifty  years. 
A  retired  student,  in  close  and  habitual  communion  with 
the  master-minds,  ancient  and  modern,  in  the  realms  of 
Biblical  criticism  and  theology,  he  was  no  pent-up  recluse 
Avho  saw  nothing  and  cared  for  nothing  beyond  the 
sphere  of  his  own  professional  engagements.  His  sym- 
pathies were  as  broad  as  our  common  humanity.  And 
so  vigilant  an  observer  was  he  of  events,  that  nothing 
)f  importance  escaped  his  notice  as  he  looked  out 
l\rough  the  loop-holes  of  his  retreat  upon  the  great 
^abel. 

His  visitors  were  sure  to  find  him  as  much  at  home 
with  the  questions  of  the  day,  scientific  or  literary, 
political  or  financial,  domestic,  foreign  or  international, 
as  though  these  had  been  his  special  study.  Deep 
thinkers  are  apt  to  be  poor  talkers.  It  was  pleasant  to 
sit  down  with  a  man  who  without  being  like  Madame 
De  Stael,  simply  "  admirable  in  monologue,"  could  inter- 
est and  instruct  you  upon  any  topic  you  might  propose. 
But  of  this  hereafter. 

Of  the  several  categories  to  which  his  contributions 
to  the  Repertory  belong,  his  annual  review  of  the  pro- 


0*7 


ceedings  of  the  General  Assembly  was  sought  fur  with 
special  avidity.     The  tone  of  these  articles,  although 
never  arrogant,  was  uniformly  judicial.     The  court  hav- 
ing gone  through  its  docket  and  made  up  its  record,  had 
adjourned.     And  now,  in  the  quiet  of  his  study,  with 
all  the  pleadings  before  him,  he  calmly  examines  ever}- 
leading  case,  with  unvarying  candor  presents  the  argu- 
ments pro  and  con,  and  sums  up  the  whole,  and  pro- 
nounces judgment  with  such  an  appeal  to  settled  princi- 
ples, such  discrimination,  and  such  force  of  reasoning, 
that  he  usually  carries  the  church  with  him.  whether 
his  opinion  be  for  or  against  the  action  of  its  supreme 
tribunal.    Instances  have  not  been  wanting  in  which  his 
smgle  pen  has,  with  triumphant  success,  controverted  a 
judgment  sustained,  after  long  debate,  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  of  a  large  Assembly.     His  position  recalls  that 
of  an  illustrious  statesman,  to  whom  for  so  many  years 
the  country  was  wont  to  turn  for  counsel  in  seasons  of 
threatening   conflict,   and   who    won    for   himself  that 
proudest  of  civic  titles,  the  "  Defender  of  the  Constitu- 
tion."    It  was  with  a  kindred  feeling  the  Presbyterian 
Church  was  accustomed  to  turn  to  our  beloved  Profes- 
sor, whenever  the  supremacy  or  integrity  of  on?-  consti- 
tution was  menaced,  whether  from  without  or  from  within. 
It  were  extravagant  to  assert  that  our  entire  communion 
always  acquiesced  in  his  utterances;    this   has    never 
been  the  manner  of  any  Presbyterian   body  in  respect 
to  any  uninspired  teacher.     But  no  one  Avill  challenge 
his  predo?7ii?mnt  influence  in  moulding  and  controlling 
the  general   sentiment  of  the  church  on  controverted 
questions  of  doctrine  and  policy. 

It  was  a  necessity  of  the  times  that  the  tone  of  the 
Repertory  should  be  largely  polemical.     It  had  Itareh 


38 

entered  upon  its  second  year  as  a  repository  of  original 
essays,  when  a  theological  controversy  commenced, 
second  in  importance  only  to  that  which  signalized  the 
ill-starred  birth  of  Unitarianism  in  Massachusetts.  It 
sprang  from  a  source  outside  of  our  communion,  but  had 
for  its  material  some  of  the  central  doctrines  of  the 
Westminster  Confession.  The  assault  upon  these  doc- 
trines was  based,  as  it  has  often  been,  upon  a  false  phi- 
losophy, which  begot  inevitably  a  false  exegesis.  Divine 
sovereignty,  the  nature  of  sin,  hereditary  depravity,  the 
relation  of  Adam  to  his  posterity,  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  regeneration,  the  nature  of  the  atonement, 
these  were  the  grave  questions  involved  in  that  great 
debate.  Of  course  the  Repertory  could  not  look  on 
with  indifference,  when  a  bold  and  organized  attempt 
was  made  to  subvert  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Calvinistic  system.  The  proffered  challenge  was  in- 
stantly accepted.  Not  to  refer  to  his  coadjutors,  Dr. 
^loDGE  responded  with  a  series  of  masterly  articles  on 
?tegen oration.  Imputation,  and  Justification,  which  left 
he  friends  of  the  ancient  faith  nothing  to  desire.  The 
:irst  of  these  articles  was  written  in  the  year  1830,  in 
die  thirty-third  year  of  his  age  (long  before  it  became 
his  official  duty  to  teach  theology),  and  the  last  in  1839. 
The  church  hailed  the  rising  star  with  thankfulness  to 
God.  He  was  already  in  their  eyes  a  learned  and  ac- 
complished theologian,  from  whose  after  life,  should  he 
be  spared,  the  most  beneficent  results  might  be  ex- 
pected. He  was  spared,  and  the  church  garnered  from 
his  husbandry  even  a  richer  harvest  than  she  would 
have  dared  anticipate. 

Having  taken  up  his  pen  in  defence  of  the  primitive 
faith,  the  course  of  events  forbade  him  to  lay  it  down. 


39 

The  post-Reformation  attacks  upon  the  Pauline  theology 
were  neither  more  vigorous  nor  more  subtle  than  some 
of  those  which  now  emanated  from  a  region  once  domi- 
nated by  the  Sai/hrook  Platform.  So  far  from  weary- 
ing of  the  combat  thus  forced  upon  him,  he  waged  it 
with  a  growing  energy  which  showed  how  much  his 
heart  was  in  it.  While  he  did  not  court  the  strife,  it  is 
impossible  to  read  the  articles  he  published  on  one  and 
another  of  its  ever-varying  phases,  without  feeling 
that,  in  vindicating  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  he  was 
breathing  a  congenial  atmosphere.  Some  of  these  dis- 
quisitions are  nowhere  surpassed  in  the  religious  litera- 
ture of  the  age,  as  examples  of  great  astuteness,  discrimi- 
nation, the  capacity  of  broad  generalization  and  incisive 
logic,  combined  with  copious  knowledge,  and  instinct 
with  unvarying  candor,  and  a  fine  Christian  spirit. 

One  of  these  qualities,  which  it  may  be  allowable  to 
emphasize,  because  the  rarest  of  all  virtues  among  con- 
troversialists, elicited  from  that  eminent  scholar  who 
represented  the  Lutheran  church  at  the  "  Semi-Centen- 
ary," a  generous  compliment.  "  In  taking  up  the  doc- 
trines of  a  church  differing  from  his  own  church.  Dr. 
Hodge  treats  them  with  candor,  love  of  truth,  and  the 
perfect  fairness  which  characterizes  all  his  dealings  with 
that  which  he  is  not  able  to  maintain.'''^ 

As  Dr.  Krauth,  in  making  this  remark,  had  special 
reference  to  his  Systematic  Divinity,  then  recently  pub- 
lished, it  may  be  added  that  every  chiq)ter  of  this  great 
work  illustrates  the  author's  candor.  No  adversary  or 
errorist  ever  suffers  at  his  hands  from  a  prejudiced  or  in- 

*  lie  said  to  me  that  evening  that  few  utterances  of  the  day  had 
afforded  him  so  much  gratification  as  this  frank  acknowledgment  from 
Prof.  Krauth. 


40 

adequate  statement  of  his  case ;  nor  has  occasion  to 
complain  that  the  writer  misses  the  true  issue  or  argues 
it  upon  grounds  which  are  not  thoroughly  legitimate 
and  trustworthy.  But  this  is  a  theme  upon  which  we 
cannot  dwell. 

For  the  first  eighteen  years  of  his  editorial  life  he 
filled  the  Chair  of  Biblical  Literature  in  our  Seminary. 
Through  the  co-ordinate  exercise  of  these  very  diverse 
functions,  a  gracious  Providence  was  training  him  in  the 
best  possible  way  for  what  was  to  be  the  crowning  work 
of  his  life.  No  man  can  be  a  great  theologian  who.  is 
not  on  the  one  hand  a  thorough  exegetical  scholar,  and 
on  the  other  an  adept  in  dealing  with  the  various  forms 
of  error  which  have  divided  or  corrupted  the  church. 
And  it  is  as  a  "  great  theologian"  that  Dr.  Hodge  has 
made  his  mark  upon  the  age,  and  will  be  known  to  the 
coming  generations.  How  much  the  age  demanded  just 
such  a  teacher,  must  be  apparent  to  every  thoughtful 
observer. 

The  disposition  to  magnify  the  evils  of  one's  own 
times  seems  to  be  inherent  in  human  nature.  Solomon 
had  occasion  to  note  this  weakness :  "  Say  not  thou, 
What  is  the  cause  that  the  former  days  were  better 
than  these  ?"  The  explanation  is  obvious.  The  evils 
of  the  present  are  all  around  and  upon  us  ;  those  of  the 
past  are  seen  only  in  the  distance.  That  real  Christian- 
ity should  always  and  everywhere  encounter  hostility 
is  a  matter  of  course.  It  is  not  of  the  world ;  iherefore 
the  world  hateth  it.  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a 
sword."  There  have  been  lulls  in  the  contest,  and  the 
weapons  and  modes  of  attack  have  varied  indefinitely, 
all  the  way  up  from  an  imposing  and  treacherous  ritual- 
ism, to  the  wholesale  slaughters  conducted  by  Pagan 


41 

princes,  and  the  diabolieal  tortures  oi'  tlie  IiKiuisition. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  mistake  the  leading  characteris- 
tics of  the  present  age.  Unrivalled  even  by  the  years 
which  followed  the  Reformation,  as  a  period  of  intense 
mental  activity,  this  closing  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  distinguished  by  a  towering  pride  of  intellect, 
an  impatience  of  authority,  an  irreverence  and  audacity 
of  speculation,  unknown,  save  in  individual  and  local 
examples,  to  any  former  age.  "  Modern  thought,"  as  it 
styles  itself, 

'*  Plays  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven, 
As  make  the  angels  weep." 

It  neither  "fears  God,  nor  regards  man."  In  truth 
there  is  no  God  but  blind  force  and  motion.  The  Bible 
is  a  myth.  Man  has  been  self-evolved — body,  soul,  and 
spirit — remotely  out  of  an  ethereal  mist,  immediately 
out  of  a  baboon.  Nay,  not  "soul  and  spirit,"  for  in 
any  proper  historical  or  psychological  sense  of  the 
terms,  he  has  neither.  Death  is  annihilation.  Chris- 
tianity is  merely  one  of  many  religions — all  invented 
and  kept  alive  by  priestcraft.  Sin,  repentance,  moral 
accountability,  a  final  judgment,  immortality,  are  imple- 
ments for  holding  men  in  bondage  to  superstition. 
These,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  axioms  of  "  modern 
thought." 

"  A  tliousand  demi-gods  on  golden  seats 
Frequent  and  full," 

propound  them  with  oracular  dignity,  and  send  them 
forth  to  comfort  and  bless,  or,  as  may  be,  to  bewilder  and 
confound,,  a  benighted,  enslaved,  and  suffering  world. 

While  "modern  thought"  is  thus  running  riot  tln'ough 
the  realm  of  scientific  research,  it  has  found  another 
field  for  the  exercise  of  its  puissance.     In  a  less  gross, 


42 

but  still  autocratic  and  impious  spirit,  it  has  entered 
the  church — not  the  domain  of  Socinianism,  which  it 
has  always  controlled  unchallenged,  but  the  communion 
of  the  faithful.  Protesting  its  loyalty  to  our  divine 
Lord,  it  sits  in  judgment  upon  His  word,  as  it  would 
upon  the  ethics  of  Aristotle  or  the  Novum  Organum  of 
Bacon.  The  inspiration  of  the  sacred  penmen  is  reduced 
to  a  precarious  and  fallible  illumination.  Eighteen  cen- 
turies have  come  and  gone  without  settling  a  single 
fundamental  truth,  not  even  the  being  of  a  God.  The  car- 
dinal doctrines  of  the  gospel — those  which  are  deposited 
in  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  which  have  been  enshrined 
in  the  creeds  of  all  the  historic  chirrches,  and  sealed  with 
the  blood  of  "  the  noble  army  of  martyrs" — these  doc- 
trines are  treated  as  if  they  were  mere  vagrant  opinions, 
born  of  yesterday,  and  of  no  binding  obligation  except- 
ing so  far  as  they  may  commend  themselves  to  our  per- 
sonal intuitions.  The  last  paper  which  Dr.  Hodge  wrote 
for  the  press,  was  an  elaborate  and  vehement  protest 
against  the  arrogant  assumption  here  referred  to.  It 
was  in  reply  to  an  essay  published  in  a  leading  religious 
journal,  in  which  it  was  said  :  "The  first  question  (con- 
cerning an  alleged  Scripture  doctrine)  is  not  the  exe- 
getical.  but  the  ethical  one.  We  want  to  know  what 
God  says ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  God  says 
anything  which  our  moral  sense  tells  us  lie  ought  not  to 
say  r  And  then  the  sponsors  of  the  ancient  f\iith  are 
told  that  they  do  not  at  all  "  understand  the  depth  and 
momentum  of  the  current  of  thought  now  sweeping 
underneath  the  surface  and  throughout  the  religious 
world."  Dr.  Hodge's  comment  on  this  taunt  is  as  fol- 
lows :  "  We  have  no  belief  in  the  momentum  and  cur- 
rent here  mentioned.     The  surface  of  the  ocean  is  sel- 


43 

dom  perfectly  smooth.  There  is  always  a  ripjde,  and 
sometimes  waves  '  mountains  high.'  But  a  few  fathoms 
deep  all  is  calm.  It  is  so  with  the  church.  There  are 
always  '  diverse  winds  of  doctrine'  sweeping  over  its 
surface,  i>roducing  ripples  which  none  Imt  those  who 
make  them  think  much  ahout.  The  church  as  a  whole 
is  secure,  and  the  truth  is  secure.  There  is  no  danger 
to  the  truth  from  'currents  of  thought.'  The  only 
danger  is  from  the  decline  of  piety.  Men  do  not  firmly 
adhere  to  doctrines  of  which  they  have  not  experienced 
the  power."  Then  follows  a  masterly  dissection  and 
refutation  of  the  pernicious  principle  which  it  is  the 
object  of  the  essay  to  defend.* 

As  a  matter  of  course  the  type  of  theology  which 
the  reigning  "  spirit  of  the  age"  arraigns  and  denounces 
with  special  imperiousness,  is  that  wiiich  ive  revere  as 
God's  truth — the  system  which  "has  underlain  the 
piety  of  the  church  in  all  ages ;  the  great  granitic  for- 
mation whose  peaks  tower  toward  heaven,  and  draw 
thence  the  waters  of  life,  and  in  whose  capacious  l)osom 
repose  those  green  pastures  in  which  the  great  Shep- 
herd gathers  and  sustains  his  flock."f  These  doctrines 
evoke  the  same  hostility  now  as  they  did  when  preached 
b}'  St.  Paul.  The  boasted  "  culture"  of  our  day  can  no 
more  endure  them,  than  would  the  culture  of  Athens 
and  Rome.     The  jibe  still  is,  "  What  will  this  babbler 

*  Dr.  Ilodse's  article  fills  five  columns  of  the  Independent  of  May  9, 
1878.  Writing  to  me  from  Washington  the  week  following  (May  15), 
perhaps  the  last  letter  he  ever  wrote,  after  speaking  of  Professor  Henry's 
death,  he  refers  to  the  communication  here  mentioned  in  these  terms : 
"  How  I  was  able  to  write  it  during  the  confusion  of  our  Examination 
week,  the  meeting  of  the  Directors,  Sec,  I  do  not  know,  as  it  made  my 
head  ache  to  read  it  in  print." 

t  Dr.  Hodge,  in  Bib.  Rep.,  1851. 


44 

say  ?"  Plain  enough  it  is  after  eighteen  centuries,  that 
that  babbler  had  his  say,  and  that  he  said  it  to  some 
purpose.  But  the  race  of  scoffers  never  learns  any- 
thing ;  and  so  the  experience  of  Mars'  Hill  is  perpetu- 
ally repeated.  Nor  has  the  fresh  outbreak  of  this 
spirit  in  our  time  been  without  effect.  Its  rationalizing 
influence  is  telling  upon  the  church.  There  has  been  a 
disposition  to  tone  down  what  are  regarded  as  the  rugged 
features  of  the  Calvinistic  system ;  to  suppress  its  more 
obnoxious  demands;  to  accommodate  it  to  the  advanced 
thought  of  this  polite  age  ;  and,  whether  of  purpose  or 
not,  to  sap  the  popular  faith  in  the  supernatural  origin 
of  the  Scriptures,  divine  sovereignty,  and,  generally, 
the  affiliated  doctrines  which  constitute,  in  Scottish 
phrase,  the  "  marrow  of  the  Gospel."  Without  any  for- 
mal league  among  the  high  contracting  parties,  numer- 
ous agencies,  materialistic,  philosophical,  and  ecclesias- 
tical, are  at  this  moment,  and  long  have  been,  confeder- 
ate against  the  ancient  Pauline  and  Augustinian  theology. 
As  the  inevitable  consequence,  that  theology  has' relaxed 
its  hold  upon  some  important  denominations  which  once 
gloried  in  it,  counterfeit  imitations,  mere  caricatures, 
palmed  upon  the  world  in  its  name,  have  excited  preju- 
dice against  it ;  and  even  among  its  friends  it  has  been 
largely  misapprehended. 

Considered  with  reference  alike  to  the  scientific  skep- 
ticism of  the  day,  and  the  earthward  tendencies  of 
thought  within  the  church,  there  was  no  want  of  the 
age  more  urgent  than  an  exposition  of  the  system  of 
theology  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  able,  learned,  and 
comprehensive  ;  embracing  a  re-statement  of  the  Augus- 
tinian Creed,  with  a  full  discussion,  from  the  evangelical 
stand-point,   of  all  essential  topics,  and  a  candid  and 


45 

ellfectivo  refutation  of  the  prevalent  heresies  in  i)liiloso- 
phy  and  morals.  It  might  be  unwarrantable  to  say  that 
there  was  but  one  man  living,  who  had  been  endowed 
with  all  the  gifts  and  graces  required  to  do  this  work  as 
it  should  be  done.  But  rich  as  the  Church  is  in  illus- 
trious scholars  and  divines,  there  was  but  one  man  to 
W'hom  the  great  confraternity  of  Calvinistic  theologians, 
among  the  English-speaking  peoples,  would  have  been 
willing,  to  confide  this  task.  His  pre-eminent  fitness, 
as  well  for  this  service  as  for  the  various  functions  de- 
volved upon  him  in  another  sphere,  is  shadowed  forth 
in  a  miniature  portrait  of  him,  graphic  and  beautiful, 
drawn  by  a  loving  pen  :  "  Great  tenderness  and  strength 
of  emotion,  and  the  power  of  exciting  it  in  others ;  an 
habitual  and  adoring  love  for  Christ,  and  absolute  sub- 
mission of  mind  and  will  to  His  word;  a  chivalrous 
disposition  to  maintain  against  all  odds  and  with  un- 
varying self-consistency,  through  all  the  years  of  a  long 
life,  the  truth  as  he  saw  it;  crystalline  clearness  of 
thought  and  expression;  and  an  unsurpassed  logical 
power  of  analysis,  and  of  grasping  and  exhibiting  all 
truths  in  their  relations."* 

To  this  outline  it  must  be  added  that  the  profound 
problems  pertaining  to  the  being,  attributes,  and  gov- 
ernment of  God,  and  mans  origin  and  destiny,  had 
been  his  life-study.  He  had  long  been  in  familiar  con- 
tact with  the  great  leaders  of  thought  and  founders  of 
schools.  Classic  and  Christian,  transcendental  and  pan- 
theistic. He  had  examined  and  analyzed  not  only  the 
ancient  and  stereotype  forms  of  error,  but  every  imjtor- 
tant  scheme  of  philosophy,  ol"  historical  criticism,  and 
of  science,  down  to  the  latest  divinations  of  the  Dar- 

*  Rev.  A.  A.  Ilod^re,  D.D. 


46 


winian  augurs.  And  with  all  this  wealth  of  learning, 
and  all  these  exalted  powers  trained  to  the  loftiest  pitch 
of  dialectic  skill,  he  brought  to  the  study  of  the  Bible 
the  humility  of  a  little  child.  To  use  his  own  words 
respecting  Dr.  Addison  Alexander  :  "  He  believed  in  it 
just  as  he  believed  in  the  solar  system.  He  could  not 
help  believing.  He  saw  so  clearly  its  grandeur  as  a 
whole,  and  the  harmonious  relation  of  its  several  parts, 
that  he  could  no  more  believe  the  Bible  to  be  a  human 
production,  than  he  could  believe  that  man  made  the 
planets.  He  never  seemed  to  have  any  doubts  or  diffi- 
culty on  the  subject.  Although  perfectly  familiar  with 
the  writings  of  the  German  rationalists  and  skeptics 
from  Ernest!  to  Bauer  and  Strauss ;  they  atfected  him 
no  more  than  the  eagle  is  affected  by  the  dew  on  his 
plumage  as  he  soars  near  the  sun."* 

Such  was  the  man  whom  God  raised  up  to  supply 
what  was  confessedly  the  great  want  of  the  Church. 
How  well  he  has  supplied  it  needs  not  to  be  told  in 
this  presence,  nor,  indeed,  in  the  presence  of  any  com- 
munion, the  world  over,  which  acknowledges  the  Be- 
formed  faith.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  (as  already  hinted) 
that  Calvinism  had  come  to  be  more  or  less  distorted, 
diluted,  exaggerated,  and  therefore  misrepresented,  even 
among  its  professed  friends.  They  may  now,  at  their 
leisure,  learn  what  Calvinism  is,  and  the  no  less  indis- 
pensable lesson,  what  it  is  not.  With  equal  effect  does 
his  Theology  address  itself  to  the  magnates  of  the 
learned  world,  and  to  that  great  body  of  educated  youth 
who  are  prosecuting  their  quest  of  truth  amidst  influ- 
ences eminently  hostile  to  the  claims  of  revealed  relig- 

*  Discourse  at  the  re-opening  of  the  Seminary  Chapel,  September  27, 
1S74. 


47 

ion.  With  neither  of  these  classes  woiihl  coinnion-place 
thinkers  be  allowed  a  hearing.  But  here  is  a  work  the 
author  of  which  is  the  peer  in  learning,  in  hreailth  and 
comprehension  of  mind,  in  metaphysical  acumen  and 
in  the  power  of  logical  ratiocination,  of  the  greatest  of 
the  applauded  scientists  and  philosophers  of  the  day. 
Immediately  on  its  re-publication  in  Scotland,  an  astute 
critic,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  its  teachings,  said  of 
it :  "  There  is  manifest  throughout  the  volume  the  pres- 
ence of  ample  knowledge.  There  is  no  book  learning 
on  any  of  its  vast  range  of  subjects,  which  the  learned 
author  would  not  app.  r  to  have  read,  and  also,  with 
more  than  ordinary  success,  digested.  Hegel  himself 
is  not  too  subtle  for  his  apprehension ;  Huxley  not  too 
trenchant  and  logical  for  his  dialectic  to  face."  A  work 
like  this  cannot  fail  to  be  of  essential  assistance  to  the 
many  able  and  accomplished  men  who  are  perplexed 
with  the  phenomena  of  our  condition,  and  honestly  seek- 
ing a  way  out  of  the  labyrinth ;  while  it  lies  athwart 
the  path  of  the  various  materialistic  schools,  an  obstack' 
which  can  neither  be  eluded  nor  removed.  Assuredly 
to  ignore  such  a  work,  or  not  to  attempt  an  answer  to 
it,  will  be  to  confess  it  unanswerable.  We  revere  it, 
then,  as  a  majestic  and  indestructible  dyke  against  the 
devastating  tides  of  error,  which  are  everywhere  me- 
nacing the  defences  of  the  Christian  faith. 

But  this  Theology  is  something  more  than  a  bulwark 
against  error — more  than  a  guide  for  the  per})lexod.  a 
shield  for  the  timid,  and  an  arsenal  for  the  unarmed. 
Its  chief  mission  is  higher  and  nobler  still.  It  is  the 
only  work  on  systematic  theology  in  any  language  which 
comprises  the  latest  results  of  sound  Scriptural  exegesis, 
expounds  with  competent  learning,  and  in  an  evangeli- 


48 

(;al  spirit,  the  august  verities  of  the  sacred  Canon,  and 
reduces  to  cobweb  the  skeptical  speculations  of  modern 
philosophy  and  science.  A  work  clothed  with  these 
attributes  becomes  a  necessity  to  the  Protestant  minis- 
•  try  of  every  name.  They  cannot  afford  to  be  without 
it.  Still  less  can  it  be  dispensed  with  in  the  Halls  of 
divinit}^  established  by  the  Calvinistic  churches  at  home 
and  abroad.  May  I  be  pardoned  for  quoting  on  this 
point  a  brief  paragraph  from  the  words  of  congratulation 
which  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  address  to  Dr.  Hodge  on 
behalf  of  the  Directors  and  Alumni  of  our  Seminary,  at 
his  Semi-Centennial  Commemoration  ? 

"  Your- Theology  must  soon  become  the  hand-book  of 
all  students  of  the  Reformed  faith  who  speak  the  Eng- 
lish tongue.  Where  you  have  taught  scores,  you  will 
now  teach  hundreds ;  and  where  you  have  taught  hun- 
dreds, you  will  teach  thousands.  Thus,  through  your 
pupils  dispersed  over  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe, 
many  of  them  engaged  in  laying  the  foundations  of 
Christianity  in  pagan  and  Mohammedan  lands,  and 
through  this  great  work  comprising  your  mature  views 
in  the  noblest  of  all  sciences,  is  your  influence  extend- 
ing in  ever-multiplying,  ever-widening,  concentric  circles, 
until  the  mind  is  awed  in  attempting  to  conceive,  not  of 
its  possible,  but  of  its  certain  results,  as  the  ages  come 
and  go.  That  you  should  live  to  see  this  mighty  me- 
chanism in  motion — to  guide  into  so  many  of  its  count- 
less channels  this  broad  stream  from  the  fountain  of 
living  waters,  is  a  distinction  so  rare  and  so  exalted 
that  we  cannot  but  look  upon  you  as  a  man  greatly 
beloved  of  God,  and  honored  as  He  has  honored  scarcely 
any  other  individual  of  our  age.  AVhen  He  has  thus 
spoken,  we  have  no  right  to  be  silent." 


49 

This  prediction,  uttered  seven  years  ago,  has  ))een  in 
process  of  fulfihnent  ever  since.  His  work  has  become, 
in  form  or  in.  fact,  a  text-book  with  many  important 
institutions  in  America  and  Great  Britain.  It  is  proba- 
bly, at  this  moment,  a  more  efficient  factor  in  shaping 
the  theology  of  the  rising  ministry  of  our  churches,  than 
any  other  u.nmspired  production.  Nor  this  only.  It  is 
clearly  destined,  in  the  hands  of  faithful  missionaries, 
to  become  a  leading  authority  in  framing  the  earliest 
formal  and  permanent  Creeds  of  numerous  peoples,  on 
their  emerging  from  barbarism  into  the  light  and  liberty 
of  the  Gospel — a  force  in  the  fashioning  of  national 
character,  silent  and  tranquil,  but  more  benign  and  more 
powerful  than  laws  and  literature  combined. 

But  it  is  time  to  come  nearer  home,  and  commune 
with  our  beloved  Professor  here  in  this  Seminary.  It. 
may  suffice  to  say  in  respect  to  his  methods  as  a  teacher, 
that  the  rare  intellectual  gifts  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking,  found  full  play  in  the  lecture  and  class-rooms. 
The  same  acumen  in  piercing  the  husk  and  the  shell, 
and  detecting  the  hidden  kernel  of  truth ;  the  same 
marvellous  power  of  analysis ;  the  same  skill  in  dissect- 
ing off  extraneous  and  impertinent  issues,  and  going 
down  to  foundation-principles ;  the  same  candor  in 
dealing  with  adverse  opinions ;  the  same  rigorous  logic ; 
these  and  their  kindred  qualities,  informed  with  the 
kindest  spirit,  and  blended  with  a  tone  and  manner  all 
gentleness,  were  daily  illustrated  in  his  official  inter- 
course with  his  students. 

But  there  was  something  still  higher  and  better  than 
all  this.  The  motto  inscribed  over  the  portals  of  this 
School  of  the  prophets  by  those  who  established  it,  and 
which  its  Directors  and  Professors  have  guarded  with 

4 


50 

uch  jealous  care  that  the  lapse  of  sixty-seven  years 
has  not  eroded,  nor  even  moulded  the  device,  was, 
'■'  Truth  and  Holiness — Truth  in  ordei;  to  Holiness." 
Piety  first,  then  learning.  Thorough  intellectual  culture, 
but  culture  inspired,  controlled,  and  hallowed  b}^  supreme 
conseci'ation  to  Gk>d.  This  was  the  paramount  aim  of 
those  venerable  men  to  whom  God,  in  his  great  love  and 
mercy  to  our  church  and  to  our  race,  confided  the  gov- 
ernment and  instruction  of  this  Seminary  at  its  birth. 

Let  me  put  this  before  you  in  its  most  authoritative 
form.  In  the  lucid  and  exhaustive  sermon  preached  by 
Dr.  Miller  at  the  inauguration  of  Dr.  Alexander  (Aug. 
12,  1812),  he  used  this  very  solemn  language  :  "  When 
I  cast  an  eye  down  the  ages  of  eternity,  and  think  how 
important  is  the  salvation  of  a  single  soul ;  when  I  re- 
collect how  important,  of  course,  the  office  of  a  minister 
of  the  gospel,  who  may  be  the  happy  instrument  of 
saving  many  hundreds  or  thousands  of  souls;  and  when 
I  remember  how  many  and  how  momentous  are  the 
relations  which  a  Seminary  intended  solely  for  training 
up  ministers  bears  to  all  the  interests  of  men  in  the  life 
that  now  is,  and  especially  in  that  which  is  to  come,  I 
feel  as  if  the  task  of  conducting  such  a  Seminary  had  an 
awfulness  of  responsibility  connected  with  it,  which  is 
enough  to  make  us  tremble.  Oh,  my  fathers  and  breth- 
ren !  let  it  never  be  said  of  us  on  whom  this  task  has 
fallen,  that  we  take  more  pains  to  make  polite  scholars, 
eloquent  orators,  or  men  of  mere  learning,  than  to  form 
'able  and  faithful  ministers  of  the  New  Testament.' 
Let  it  never  be  said  that  we  are  more  anxious  to  main- 
tain the  literary  and  scientific  honors  of  the  ministry, 
than  we  are  to  promote  that  honor  which  consists  in 
being  '  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  and  the  in- 


51 

stmments  of  -adding  much  people  to  the  Lord.'  The 
eyes  of  the  Church  are  upon  us.  The  eyes  of  angels, 
and,  above  aU,  the  eyes  of  the  King  of  Zion  are  upon 
us.     May  we  have  grace  given  us  to  be  faithful  !"' 

What  rapture  would  have  filled  the  breast  of  the 
revered  father,  could  the  record  which  we  now  make 
have  been  spread  before  him  on  that  day,  that  three 
thousand  men  would  be  trained  within  these  walls  for 
the  sacred  ministry,  under  the  ceaseless  influence  of  the 
lesson  he  enforced  with  such  persuasive  eloquence.  No 
teacher  ever  occupied  one  of  these  Chairs  who  has  lost 
sight  of  it.  It  is  the  guiding  star  of  the  distinguished 
scholars  and  divines  who  constitute  the  present  Faculty. 
These  brethren,  his  honored  associates,  will  bear  willing 
testimony  to  the  beneficent  power  of  Dr.  Hodge  in  keep- 
ing the  Seminary  up  to  this  its  loftiest  mission.  It  cost 
him  no  effort  to  hold  this  end  ever  in  view.  And  a  man 
who  walked  with  God,  as  he  did,  could  not  fail  to  exert 
a  healthful  influence  upon  all  who  approached  him. 
His  very  presence  was  felt  by  his  students  as  a  benedic- 
tion— a  means  of  grace,  carrying  with  it  a  silent  rebuke, 
an  encouragement,  a  stimulus  to  watchfulness  and  fidelity 
— according  to  their  individual  needs.  A  personality 
like  this  has  a  power  all  its  own.  It  is  something  dif- 
ferent from  talent,  learning,  eloquence,  dialet-tic  skill, 
affable  manners,  or  all  these  combined.  You  cannot  see 
it.  You  cannot  define  it.  But  you  can  and  must  feel 
it.  No  one  could  sit  down  with  Dr.  Hodge  without 
feeling  it — perhaps  more  sensibly  than  with  almost 
any  one  they  will  have  known.  And  these  young  men 
felt  it,  not  only  in  "  his  opening  prayers  which  seemed 
to  constitute  his  class-room  a  Bethel,  and  the  savor  of 
which  was  as  the  incense  of  morn  to  the  soul  wooing  it 


upi,vard  to  communion  with  God,"'='  but  through  the 
entire  routine  of  the  daily  lecture  or  recitation,  and,  no 
less,  in  their  familiar  visits  to  his  study. 

If  this  were  true  of  his  ordinary  converse,  what  must 
be  said  of  his  "  Sunday-afternoon  talks "  in  the  Ora- 
tory ?  The  older  graduates  of  the  Seminary  love  to 
dwell  upon  this  conference  as  it  was  conducted  by  the 
two  senior  Professors  of  their  day.  It  was  here,  espe- 
cially, that  Dr.  Alexander  displayed  that  deep  exper- 
imental knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  and  of  the 
Gospel  as  the  only  remedy  for  its  corruptions,  for  which 
he  was  so  pre-eminent.  He  seemed  to  have  studied 
every  phase  of  character  and  every  type  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  It  mattered  not  whether  the  subject  were  joy 
or  sorrow,  temptation  or  triumph,  the  hope  that  saves 
or  the  hope  that  deceives,  trust  or  despondency,  faith 
or  works,  life  or  death, — you  soon  saw,  in  listening 
to  him,  that  it  was  familiar  ground  to  him,  and  that, 
wherever  you  were,  he  had  been  there  before  you. 
How  could  we  help  reverencing  a  man  whom  we  felt, 
as  soon  as  he  began  to  speak,  busy  about  our  hearts, 
and  who  would  go  on  opening  one  ward  after  another, 
until  we  began  to  fear  that  there  was  not  a  secret 
chamber  he  might  not  enter,  and  lay  bare  all  that  was 
in  it  ?  This  rare  gift  descended  to  his  successor.  Dr. 
Hodge's  addresses  at  this  conference,  colloquial  in  form, 
but,  as  now  appears  from  his  memoranda,  carefully  pre- 
meditated, reveal  the  same  familiarity  with  the  intrica- 
cies of  the  human  heart,  the  same  aptitude  in  dealing 
with  questions   of  casuistry,  and  the   same   felicity  in 

*  See  an  admirable  article  in  the  "  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical 
Review,"  by  his  distinguished  pupil,  Professor  Watts,  of  the  Assembly's 
College,  Belfast. 


63 

portraying  the  hopes  and  fears,  the  snares  and  eonfliets. 
the  trials  and  encouragements,  of  the  Christian  warfare. 

One  of  his  favorite  pupils'^'  has  hrought  him  l^efore  us 
at  this  service,  in  a  sketch  as  beautiful  as  it  is  life-like  : 

"  No  triumph  of  his  with  tongue  or  pen  ever  so  thrilled 
and  moved  human  hearts  as  did  his  utterances  at  the 
Sabbath-afternoon  conferences  in  the  Seminary  Oratory, 
which  will  live  in  the  immortal  memory  of  every  Prince- 
ton student.  A  subject  would  be  given  out  on  the  Sun- 
day before,  generally  some  one  which  involved  prac- 
tical, experimental,  spiritual  religion — such  as  Christian 
fidelity,  love  of  God's  word,  prayer,  the  Lord's  Supper, 
the  great  commission.  After  brief  opening  services  by 
the  students,  the  Professors  spoke  in  turn ;  but  Dr. 
Hodge's  was  the  voice  which  all  waited  to  hear.  Sit- 
ting quietly  in  his  chair,  with  a  simple  ease  which 
seemed  born  of  the  moment,  but  was  really  the  fruit 
of  careful  preparation,  even  with  the  pen,  he  would 
pour  out  a  tide  of  thought  and  feeling  which  moved 
and  melted  all — solemn,  searching,  touching,  tender — 
his  eye  sometimes  kindling  and  his  voice  swelling  or 
trembling  with  the  force  of  sacred  emotion,  while 
thought  and  language  at  times  rose  to  a  grandeur  which 
held  us  spell-bound.  Few  went  away  from-  those  con- 
secrated meetings  without  feeling  in  their  hearts  that 
there  was  nothing  good  and  pure  and  noble  in  Christian 
character  which  he  who  would  be  a  worthy  minister  oi 
Christ  ought  not  to  covet  for  his  own." 

It  was  these  familiar  descants  on  the  inner  life  of  the 
soul,  even  more  than  his  profound  discussions  of  the 
sublime  theories  of  theology,  that  disclosed  the  real 
secret  of  his  greatness.     The  key  to  his  whole  charac- 

*  William  Irvin,  D.D.,  of  Troy,  N.  Y. 


54 

ter,  intellectual  and  moral,  lies  in  the  extraordinary 
measure  of  divine  influence  which  was  granted  him. 
"  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words  :  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and 
make  our  abode  with  him."  The  remarkable  phrase- 
ology here  employed  by  the  Saviour,  which  has  no  par- 
allel in  His  other  recorded  utterances,  clothes  the  prom- 
ise with  a  significance  beyond  our  grasp.  But  here,  if 
anywhere,  was  one  to  whom  it  was  given  to  enjoy  the 
priceless  distinction  it  conferred.  Manifest  it  was  to 
all  eyes  that  the  Father  and  the  Son  had  come  to  him, 
not  as  a  wayfaring  man,  to  tarry  for  a  night,  but  to 
ahide  with  him ;  or,  translating  this  unusual  language 
into  familiar  phrase,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given  to 
him  in  a  very  unwonted  measure.  Rarely,  if  ever,  did 
any  one  hear  him  speak  of  his  own  religious  exercises ; 
but  this  were  as  superfluous  as  to  ask  the  harvest-moon 
where  she  gets  her  splendor.  His  daily  walk  betrayed 
the  Secret ;  and  the  Oratory,  beyond  all  other  spheres, 
showed  that  the  "  hiding  of  his  power  "  lay  in  that  in- 
dwelling of  the  Spirit  which  made  his  life  an  habitual 
communion  with  God.  In  these  exercises,  as  in  his 
prayers — above  all,  his  prayers  at  the  family-altar — the 
Christological  type  of  his  piety  constantly  appeared. 
Not  Rutherford  himself  was  more  absorbed  with  the 
love  of  Christ.  Around  this  central  sun,  and  so  near 
to  it  as  to  be  always  aglow  with  its  beams,  his  whole 
being  revolved.  Christ  was  not  onl}^  the  ground  of  his 
hope,  but  the  acknowledged  sovereign  of  his  intellect, 
the  soul  of  his  theology,  the  unfailing  spring  of  his  joy, 
the  one  all-pervading,  all-glorifying  theme  and  end  of 
his  life.  When  Bengel  lay  a-dying,  a  friend,  standing 
l)y  his  bedside,  pronounced  over  him  these  words : — 


55 

"  Lord  Jesns,  to  Thee  I  live ;  to  Thee  I  siinVr ;  to  Thee 
I  die  :  Thine  I  am,  in  death  and  in  life.  Save  and  bless 
me,  0  Savionr,  for  ever  and  ever  :  Amen."  Upon  hear- 
ing the  words  Thine  I  am,  the  great  expositor  hud  his 
right  hand  npon  his  heart,  and  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
There  is  bnt  one  formula  which  so  well  sums  up  and 
defines  the  religious  character  of  our  revered  Professor  : 
'•  To  me,  TO  live  is  Christ  ;  and  to  die  is  gain."  And 
here  in  this  Conference,  where  his  every  tone,  and  look, 
and  utterance,  was  instinct  with  his  love  to  Christ,  did 
he  most  fully  realize  to  those  around  him  their  concep- 
tion of  '•'  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved."  When  his 
addresses  come  to  be  collected  and  published,*  they 
will  constitute,  though  merely  in  outline,  a  body  of 
practical  and  casuistical  divinity  inferior  to  no  work  of 
its  size  and  compass  in  our  language. 

Let  me  not  be  understood  as  depreciating  the  labors 
of  his  colleagues,  whether  in  this  or  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  Seminary  life.  In  the  Oratory,  as  every- 
where else,  they  were  in  perfect  sympathy  with  him ; 
they  were  just  as  conscientious  and  faithful;  they  sec- 
onded all  his  efforts  for  leading  the  students  up  to  a 
closer  and  still  closer  ''  imitation  of  Christ ;"  and  as  they 
shared  with  him  the  responsibility,  so  they  will  share 
with  him  the  imperishable  reward,  of  having  success- 
fully trained  a  very  large  body  of  young  men  to  become 
able  ministers  of  the  New  Testament — perhaps  the 
very  highest  function  which  God  ever  entrusts  to  mor- 
tal hands. 

This  incidental  reference  to  our  corps  of  Professors 
conjointly  may  fitly  introduce  a  further  observation  on 
the  subject.     In  a  sermon  already  quoted,  Dr.  Hodge, 

*As  they  now  have  been. 


56 

speaking  of  Drs.  Alexander  and  Miller,  says  :  "It  often 
happens  that  men  are  very  pious  without  being  very 
good.  Their  religion  expends  itself  in  devotional  feel- 
ings and  services,  while  the  evil  passions  of  their  nature 
remain  unsubdued.  It  was  not  so  with  our  fathers  : 
they  were  as  good  as  they  were  pious.  I  was  inti- 
mately associated  with  them,  as  pupil  and  colleague, 
between  thirty  and  forty  years.  In  all  that  time  I 
never  saw  in  either  of  them  any  indication  of  vanity, 
of  pride,  of  malice,  of  envy,  of  jealousy,  of  insincerity, 
of  uncharitableness,  or  of  disingenuousness.  I  know 
that  what  I  say  is  incredible,  nevertheless  it  is  true ; 
and  it  is  my  right  and  my  duty  to  scatter  these  with- 
ered flowers  upon  their  graves.  Most  men  have  reason 
to  rejoice  that  their  bosoms  are  opaque ;  but  these  holy 
men,  as  it  always  seemed  to  me,  might  let  the  sun  shine 
through  them." 

This  is  a  very  remarkable  statement.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  its  counterpart  could  be  supplied  from  the  an- 
nals of  any  literary  or  theological  institution  the  world 
has  seen.  Yet  is  there  one  thing  even  more  remarkable 
—viz.,  that  without  going  beyond  this  record,  a  third 
man  should  be  found  in  whom  all  those  virtues  shone 
with  the  same  undimmed  lustre ;  that  in  the  judgment  of 
those  who  were  the  most  confidentially  associated  with 
its  author  for  fifty  years,  every  word  he  has  here  writ- 
ten is  as  strictly  applicable  to  himself  as  it  was  to  his 
venerable  colleagues.  Who  ever  saw  in  Charles  Hodge 
the  slightest  taint  or  token  "  of  vanity,  of  pride,  of  mal- 
ice, of  envy,  of  jealousy,  of  insincerity,  of  uncharitable- 
ness, or  of  disingenuousness  "  ?  Is  it  extravagant  to  say 
that  the  contemporaneous  presence  of  three  men  in  the 
same  Faculty  for  two   score  years,  any  one   of  whom 


57 

might  have  sat  for  this  portrait,  is  a  inarxcl  to  which 
no  parallel  can  be  foimd  ?  What  hath  Cuxl  wrouglit  for 
this  Seminary  and  for  the  church  made  so  much  ridier 
and  better  by  the  lives  and  labors  of  these  holy  men ! 
If  one  were  called  upon  to  specify  the  most  conspic- 
uous feature  of  Dr.  Hodge's  religious  character,  next  to 
that  pure  love  with  which  his  whole  nature  was  trjins- 
fused,  it  would  be  his  humility — perhaps  the  most  dis- 
tinctively Christian  grace  in  the  whole  garniture  of  the 
believer.  Here  was  a  man  clothed  with  brilliant  intel- 
lectual gifts,  an  accomplished  scholar,  laden  with  gen- 
erous stores  of  the  choicest  learning,  his  utterances  on 
all  ecclesiastical  and  dogmatic  questions  listened  to  by 
a  great  church  with  a  deference  accorded  to  no  other 
living  teacher,  lauded  by  eminent  theologians  in  Europe 
and  America  as  "  the  theologian  of  the  age,"  and  the 
constant  object  of  undisguised  and  loving  reverence  to 
all  around  him,  yet  modest  and  unassuming  as  a  child — 
never  asserting  his  consequence :  never  obtruding  his 
opinions ;  never  courting  a  compliment ;  never  saying  or 
doing  anything  for  effect;  never  challenging  attention 
to  himself  in  any  way."^'  Of  course  he  could  not  be 
blind  to  the  homage  which  was  paid  him  from  every 
quarter ;  but  his  own  estimate  of  himself  was  framed 
by  quite  another  standard.  His  vast  learning  taught 
him  that  he  had  barely  crossed  the  border  of  that 
boundless  domain  of  truth  which  stretches  off  in  every 
direction  into  \kiQ  infinite;  and  his  habitual  feeling  was 

*  One  of.  our  Directors,  lonti;  since  gone  to  liis  reward,  was  a  most 
vivacious  and  affrccable  talker.     Dr.  Hodge  said  to  mo  one  day,  *'  Have 

you  noticed  a  curious  fact  about  Dr.  ?"     "  Wiiat  is  it?"     "lie 

never  talks  about  anything  but  himself,  and  yet  in  him  it  never  strikes 
you  as  egotism."  This  was  true.  I  cite  it  simply  as  siiowing  his  pleas- 
ant way  of  dealing  with  an  infirmity  which  had  no  Jiiaee  in  his  own 
character. 


58 

that  of  La  Place,  who,  being  complimented,  when  near 
his  end,  on  the  splendor  of  his  attainments,  replied, 
"  What  we  know  is  very  little ;  what  we  do  not  know 
is  immense."  So  in  respect  to  his  personal  piety.  To 
all  eyes  but  his  own  he  had  approached  as  near  to  "  the 
stature  of  a  perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus"  as  any,  the 
most  favored,  of  those  saints  whose  names  the  church 
has  embalmed.  But  so' clear  was  his  apprehension  of 
the  spotless  holiness  of  God,  so  transcendent  his  views 
of  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  debt  we  owe  Him,  and 
so  inwrought  his  sense  of  the  turpitude  of  sin,  that  he 
could  only  think  of  himself  as  a  poor,  miserable  sinner 
saved  by  grace  ineffable,  whose  best  services  were 
utterly  unfit  to  be  presented  to  God,  whose  purest 
aspirations  were  too  impure  to  be  accepted  save  through 
the  ever-prevalent  intercession  of  our  great  High  Priest. 
Here,  indeed,  was  a  clear  intimation  that  the  path  he 
was  treading  lay  close  along  the  suburbs  of  the  heav- 
enly city.  For  the  inevitable  effect  of  a  near  discovery 
of  the  divine  glory  must  always  be  what  it  was  with 
Isaiah  and  the  beloved  apostle — to  overwhelm  the  soul 
Avith  a  sense  of  its  own  vileness.  Therefore  it  was  that 
our  dear  Professor  was  ever  "clothed  with  humility" 
— clothed  with  it :  it  covered  him  like  "  a  raiment  of 
needlework  " — covered  all  the  powers  of  his  mind,  all 
the  treasures  of  his  learning,  all  the  wealth  of  his  affec- 
tions, all  that  made  him  great  and  good,  loving  and 
beloved,  all  that  moved  us  to  look  upon  him  as  one 
given  to  the  church  (may  it  be  allowed  me  to  say)  to 
shew  how  much  a  Christian  may,  even  in  this  world, 
become  like  Christ.* 

*  May  I  illustrate  this  point  by  one  or  two  incidents  not  related  at 
the  delivery  of  the  discourse. 

About  a  year  before  his  death  we  were  one  day  talkini!;  toi^ether,  and 


59 

Fidelity  to  the  truth  constrains  mc  to  eniiiliasize  the 
thought,  that  the  spirit  here  delineated  is  the  logical 
out-come  of  the  Calvinistic  theology  in  its  thorough  and 
pervasive  contact  with  a  powerful  intellect.  With  the 
world,  especinlly  with  the  lighter  cohorts  of  the  world 
of  letters,  this  theology  is  the  symbol  of  pride,  bigotry, 
and  austerity.  That  these  traits  are  sometimes  exhibited 
by  professed  Calvinists,  as  well  as  by  people  of  other 
creeds  and  of  no  creed,  is  not  denied.  Nor  is  it  denied 
that  there  are  fierce  Calvinistic  lions  who  are  never 
turned  into  lambs.  But  that  the  legitimate  tendency  of 
the  system  is  in  that  direction,  and  that  witli  an  energy 
unknown  to  any  other  belief,  it  would  be  easy  to  prove 
both  from  an  analysis  of  its  elements  and  from  the  an- 
nals of  the  church.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  its  grand, 
characteristic  feature,  that  which  in  the  judgment  alike 

I  was  saying,  "  You  ouf;ht  to  be  a  very  happy  man.  Consider  what  you 
have  accomplished,  and  the  universal  feelin;;;  towards  you — "  "  Now 
stop  !"  said  he,  with  a  wave  of  the  hand.  "  All  that  can  lie  said  is,  that 
God  has  been  pleased  to  take  up  a  poor  little  stick  and  do  something 
with  it.  What  I  have  done  is  as  nothing  compared  with  what  is  done  by 
a  man  who  goes  to  Africa,  and  labors  among  a  heathen  tribe,  and  re- 
duces their  language  to  writing.  I  am  not  worthy  to  stoop  down  and 
unloose  the  shoes  of  such  a  man." 

Again,  in  the  course  of  a  letter  written  in  January,  1878,  and  breath- 
ing in  every  sentence  the  same  spirit,  he  says  :  "  It  is  a  delusion.  It  is 
not  what  I  am,  but  what  God's  providence  has  done  with  me,  that  you 
have  in  the  eye  of  your  imagination.  Had  I  been  settled  in  a  retired 
parish,  nobody  would  ever  have  heard  my  7io;«e." 

At  his  Semi-Centennial  Commemoration  (April  24,  1872),  the  highest 
tribute  ever  paid  to  a  minister  of  the  gospel  in  the  United  States,  the 
entire  afternoon  was  taken  up  with  the  laudatory  addresses  of  repre- 
sentative men,  speaking  for  their  respective  institutions  and  Christian 
denominations,  at  home  and  abroad.  lie  was  reclining,  the  while,  upon 
a  sofa  at  the  rear  of  the  platform.  When  it  was  over,  I  said  to  him, 
"  How  did  you  stand  all  that?"'  "  Why,"  said  he,  with  a  pleasant  smile, 
"  very  quietly.  It  didn't  seem  at  all  to  be  me  they  were  talking  about. 
I  hi'ard  it  all  as  of  some  other  man." 


GO 

of  friends  and  foes  distinguishes  it  from  all  other  schemes, 
is,  that  it  exalts  God  and  abases  man.  Its  fundamental 
princiiDles  are  these  two,  viz.,  man's  utter  depravity, 
ruin,  and  helplessness ;  and  salvation  by  grace  through 
the  mediation  of  Christ,  sovereign,  free,  and  unmerited, 
from  first  to  last,  in  every  stage,  and  at  every  step. 
These  principles  received  into  the  heart  with  an  enlight- 
ened and  cordial  faith,  must  necessarily  foster  low 
thoughts  of  one's  self,  meekness,  benevolence,  and  the 
whole  train  of  sister-graces.  A  cloud  of  witnesses  might 
be  summoned  to  show  that  this  is  no  mere  speculative 
conjecture,  but  the  actual  and  ordinary  result  where  the 
doctrines  in  question  are  clearly  apprehended  and  lov- 
ingly embraced.  Among  these  witnesses  would  be  found 
very  many  in  different  lands  whose  seraphic  piety,  pro- 
found learning,  and  unwearied  labors,  have  illumined  the 
times  in  which  they  lived.  It  will  be  germane  to  the 
occasion  to  mention,  by  way  of  example,  two  names 
which  must  have  place  in  any  enrolment  that  claims  to 
include  the  ten  most  illustrious  thinkers  and  authors 
known,  outside  the  circle  of  inspiration,  to  the  Christian 
Church.  Augustine  and  Jonathan  Edwards  were  as 
humble  and  lowly  in  spirit,  as  they  were  resplendent  in 
their  intellectual  strength. 

This  train  of  thought  is  suggestive  of  another  trait  of 
Dr.  Hodge's  character  already  glanced  at.  His  home 
was  in  the  empire  of  the  affections.  Never  did  a  more 
kindly,  loving  heart  throb  in  a  human  bosom.  There 
were  those  of  old  who  said  to  the  Master,  "  Thou  hast 
a  devil."  What  wonder  that  some  of  their  successors 
should  charge  the  disciple  with  bigotry,  intolerance,  ma- 
lignity ?  All  they  knew  or  cared  to  know,  was,  that  he 
was  the  accredited  defender  of  a  theology  they  hated. 


61 

although  as  ignorant  of  it  as  were  the  Pharisees  of  the 
Saviour's  teachings.  This  "  antiquated  theoh)gy,"  '^  an- 
tiquated," we  admit,  for  it  dates  back  to  the  apostles, 
yes,  and  to  prophets  and  patriarchs,  has  always  been 
the  abhorrence  of  free-thinkers  and  latitudinarians  of 
whatever  name.  Princeton,  its  chosen  sanctuary,  is, 
to  the  eyes  of  the  Eastern  Magi,  covered  with  a  pall  of 
Cimmerian  darkness.  No  flowers  of  Paradise  bloom 
there.  The  only  Flora  known  to  its  rugged  soil  is  thorns 
and  brambles.  Accustomed  as  they  are  to  associate 
with  its  avowed  creed  ideas  of  narrow-mindedness,  viru- 
lence, and  the  like,  they  must  needs  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  this  creed  was  the  very 
incarnation  of  these  amiable  qualities.  Had  they 
charged  simply  that  he  was  resolute  in  maintaining  his 
opinions  ;  that  he  would  make  no  compromise  with  what 
he  believed  to  be  error ;  that  no  adverse  array  of  num- 
bers, talent,  official  station,  or  personal  vituperation, 
could  repress  the  frankest  expression  of  his  sentiments 
on  all  fitting  occasions ;  that,  in  a  word,  truth  was  dearer 
to  him  than  life,  and  he  would  have  stood  for  it  like 
Luther  at  Worms,  with  an  empire  or  a  world  in  arms 
against  it :  had  this  been  the  indictment,  no  one  could 
have  traversed  it.  But  when  it  comes  to  be  a  question 
of  tone  and  temper,  it  is  a  different  matter.  Here  he 
was  a  very  child.  Not  one  of  his  various  eulogists  has 
failed  to  advert  to  this  feature  of  his  character.  Ad- 
dicted as  he  was  to  laborious  study  in  the  grandest  fields 
open  to  our  research,  and  capable,  l)eyond  most  men,  of 
scaling  the  heights  and  sounding  the  depths  which  de- 
fine the  limits  of  human  thought,  he  entered  with  ;i 
lively  zest  into  the  current  talk  of  the  hour,  Ihe  amuse- 
ments  of  children,  the   petty  news-gatherings   of  his 


62 

visitors, — nothing,  indeed,  was   too  trivial  to   interest 
him. 

In  society,  he  was  no  monopolist  like  Coleridge  and 
Macanlay,  but,  as  already  hinted,  he  was  certainly  one 
of  the  most  foscinating  of  talkers.  A  very  noticeable 
thing  about  him  was  the  facility  with  which  he  would 
pass  from  the  lightest  to  the  gravest  themes.  Abound- 
ing as  he  did  in  anecdote,  no  boy  enjoyed  a  good  story 
more.  Grim  Calvinist  as  he  was  said  to  be,  his  airy 
spirit  revealed  itself  in  a  tide  of  humor  as  inexhaustible 
as  it  w^as  refreshing.  Wit  he  had,  no  less ;  as  many  a 
remembered  pleasantry,  and  many  a  sentence  in  his 
polemical  essays  will  attest.  But  this  keener  weapon 
was  kept  more  in  reserve.  It  was  wdt  as  refined  and 
sweetened  into  humor  by  sympathy,  tenderness,  and 
affection,  that  set  oft'  to  such  advantage  his  massive  in- 
tellectual powers,  and  sparkled  through  his  conversation 
like  the  shimmer  of  the  moonbeams  upon  the  rippling 
lake.  This  beautiful  gift — for  such  it  surely  is — never 
degenerated  with  him  into  irreverence,  coarseness,  or 
buffoonery.  It  never  carried  him  so  far  aw^ay  from  the 
cross  and  its  sublime  verities,  that  he  could  not  pass  at 
once,  and  without  violence  to  his  own  feelings  or  those 
of  others,  from  the  sprightliest  to  the  gravest  topics ; 
from  the  commerce  of  small  talk  bristling  with  amusing 
reminiscences  and  brilliant  repartee,  to  the  discussion  of 
some  subtle  question  of  metaphysics  or  theology,  or  the 
luminous  exposition  of  some  controverted  scripture. 
Whatever  the  company  or  the  theme,  he  was  always 
natural.  He  never  paraded  his  learning ;  never  intro- 
duced a  topic  for  the  sake  of  "showing  off"  upon  it; 
never  assumed,  in  his  intercourse  with  his  students  or 
others,  an  air  of   superiority.     His   world-wide   fame 


63 

brought  to  his  hospitable  door  numerous  visitors  from 
remote  states  and  foreign  countries ;  and  nothing  sur- 
prised and  charmed  them  more  than  the  perfect  sim- 
plicity and  the  quiet,  unostentatious  manners  of  tlio  man 
whom  they  had  been  accustomed  to  look  at  from  a  dis- 
tance with  a  sort  of  awe.  With  that  inborn  refinement 
and  courtesy  which  came  of  his  gentle  blood,  he  aimed 
at  drawing  out  his  guests  while  he  listened  ;  and,  it  must 
be  said,  he  added  to  his  many  other  graces  the  rare  ac- 
complishment of  being  a  good  listener,  even  where  there 
was  not  much  to  listen  to.  If  they  thwarted  his  pur- 
pose and  constrained  him  to  do  the  talking,  it  was  cer- 
tain to  be  in  a  strain  which  would  run  out  the  hour-glass 
very  swiftly,  but  without  one  word  designed  for  self- 
laudation.  All  the  more  surely  did  it  win  their  homage. 
For  it  is  a  law  written  as  well  upon  the  heart  as  upon 
the  inspired  page,  ''  He  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be 
exalted ;"  and  when  we  meet  with  a  person  of  rare  pow- 
ers or  of  signal  usefulness,  who  loses  sight  of  himself 
in  his  concern  for  the  welfare  of  others,  we  instinctively 
pay  him  the  tribute  of  our  loving  admiration.  How 
could  Dr.  Hodge's  visitors  help  carrying  away  this  feel- 
ing with  them  ? 

In  one  of  Dr.  Chalmers'  SabbatlL  llcadiu(j><,  there  is 
a  touching  allusion  to  himself.  He  is  commenting  on 
the  devoted  friendship  between  David  and  Jonathan,  the 
latter  of  whom  he  styles,  "  my  beloved  Jonathan."  and 
speaks  of  him  as,  "  on  the  whole,  the  most  engaging 
character,  and  perhaps  the  most  perfectly  drawn  of  all 
the  merely  human  personages  whom  either  jtrufaiie  <»r 
sacred  history  has  recorded."  Depicting  the  mutual 
love  of  these  two  friends,  he  adds  with  a  sort  of  pathos. 
"I  feel  a  void  in  my  own  heart  from  the  want  of  an 


64 

object  on  whom  I  might  concentrate  this  affection  in 
Ml,  loving  him  'both  in  the  flesh  and  in  the  Lord.' 
(Philemon  xvi.)  There  is  a  shyness,  or  coldness,  or 
want  of  foil  and  free  congeniality  about  me,  in  virtue  of 
which  I  feel  that  my  capacity  for  the  enjoyment  of 
social  intimacy  has  not  been  met  by  aught  that  is  ade- 
quate for  my  entire  satisfaction  in  this  way."  Our  be- 
loved Professor  labored  under  no  such  disability  as  that 
wdiich  is  here  so  feelingly  confessed  and  deplored  (though 
in  the  judgment  of  some  who  knew  him  well,  without 
reason*)  by  the  illustrious  Scotchman.  He  was  formed 
for  friendship.  His  nature  craved  it.  He  could  not  do 
without  it,  and  happily  he  Avas  not  put  to  the  trial.  I 
do  not  now  refer  to  that  home  which  was  blessed  and 
brightened  with  his  presence,  and  where  his  loving 
heart  found  full  scope  and  verge,  and  was  in  turn  en- 
riched by  the  reciprocal  in-flow  of  a  love  as  tender  as 
his  own.     There  was  a  circle  outside  of  this  upon  which 

*  It  was  my  hio;h  privilege  to  spend  with  Dr.  Chalmers  the  last  even- 
ing but  one  of  his  life,  Saturday,  May  28,  1847.  At  sunrise  on  the 
'  ensuing  Monday,  the  cry  rang  through  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Chalmers  is 
dead !  Not  to  go  into  the  details  of  that  memorable  interview,  let  it 
suffice  to  say,  as  bearing  upon  the  passage  in  the  text,  that  I  have  never 
received  a  more  cordial  and  hearty  greeting  than  that  with  which,  taking 
both  my  hands  in  his  own,  he  welcomed  me  to  Morning-side.  He  had 
returned  from  London  only  the  day  before,  and  spoke  of  himself  as  being 
in  unusually  good  health.  All  the  benevolence  of  his  character  came 
out  in  his  genial  smile.  His  courtesy,  his  affability,  the  tones  of  his 
voice,  the  graciousness  and  even  warmth  of  his  whole  manner,  as  he 
talked  with  me  of  grave  questions  with  which  the  Free  Church  Assem- 
bly, then  in  session,  was  likely  to  be  agitated,  and  the  kindliness  with 
which,  on  my  rising  to  leave,  he  pressed  an  invitation  for  us  (the  ladies 
of  my  party  had  remained  at  the  hotel  that  evening)  to  l)reakfast  with 
him,  first  on  Tuesday  and  then  on  Monday  morning — all  this  made  a 
lasting  impression  upon  me  so  grateful  and  so  vivid  that  I  cannot  at  all 
take  in  that  disparaging  estimate  of  his  own  social  nature  which  I  have 
quoted  from  his  "  Sabbath  Readings." 


66 

he  lavished  his  warm  affection.  No  niggard  in  his  gene- 
rous sympathies,  his  kindly  wishes  went  out  towards  all 
whom  he  knew;  and  there  were  many  who  shared 
his  love.  But  with  him,  as  with  us  all,  there  were  a 
chosen  few  whose  place  came  next  after  his  own 
household.  Among  the  names  which  were  oftenest  on 
his  lips  were  those  of  Johns  and  McIlvaine,  Nevins  and 
B.  B.  WiSNER,  DoD  and  James  Alexander,  and  Van 
Rensselaer.  All  these  preceded  him  to  the  better 
country.  The  first  two  were  his  fellow-students  at  Nas- 
sau Hall,  and  the  first  four  were  his  companions  in  the 
Seminary.  A  brilliant  constellation  in  the  moral  firma- 
ment— collectively,  with  the  addition  of  him  who  was 
facile  frinceps  among  them,  they  represented  as  much  of 
mental  power  and  brilliant  imagination,  of  keen  dialectic 
and  exquisite  taste,  of  racy  humor  and  quick  sensibility, 
of  liberal  letters  and  commanding  eloquence,  of  Christian 
activity  and  usefulness,  and,  above  all,  in^all,  and  through 
all,  of  humble,  earnest  piety,  as  could  be  found  among 
any  similar  group  selected  from  the  entire  rolls  of  our 
Seminaries  and  Colleges. 

The  ties  which  linked  Dr.  Hodge  with  these  kindred 
spirits  were  never  severed  nor  weakened,  except  as,  one 
by  one,  they  were  sundered  by  death.  It  is  no  dispar- 
agement of  the  others  to  say  that,  as  Johns  was  his  first 
love  in  the  order  of  time,  and  was  spared  to  him  the 
longest,  so  his  affection  for  him  was  peculiarly  intense 
and  tender.  The  friendship  born  of  their  early  inti- 
macy never  lost  its  aroma.  Those  who  were  present 
at  the  Semi-Centenary  Commemoration,  will  remember 
the  thrill  of  pleasure  which  went  through  the  great 
assemblage  when  the  Rev.  Prof  Packard,  speaking  for 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Seminary  of  Virginia,  re- 
5 


Go 

marked  that  on  leaving  home,  Bishop  Johns  said  to 
him,  "  Give  my  love  to  Charlie^  That  message  told  the 
story :  they  were  boys  together  at  twenty,  and  they 
were  still  boys  together  at  eighty ;  the  presage  and  ex- 
emplar of  that  blessed  fellowship  which,  after  a  brief 
interruption,  has  now  been  renewed  before  the  throne. 
If  I  quote  one  further  observation  of  Prof.  Packard's, 
it  is  with  the  conviction  that  the  good  Bishop,  could  he 
have  been  present,  would  have  said  in  person  just  what 
he  did  say  through  his  honored  representative  :  "  When 
the  history  of  theology  in  America  for  the  last  fifty 
years  shall  be  impartially  written,  the  foremost  name 
on  the  list  of  those  who  have  deserved  well  of  the 
Church — that  name  which  will  shine  in  letters  of  light 
as  the  first  and  foremost  name  on  the  list — will,  by  the 
almost  universal  consent  of  all  the  churches,  be  the 
name  of  Charles  Hodge." 

The  topics  with  which  we  have  now  been  engaged, 
have  brought  into  view  the  gentler  side  of  Dr.  Hodge's 
character.  There  are  those  who  will  regard  the  quali- 
ties indicated,  as  revealing  a  certain  sort  of  weakness — 
pardonable,  indeed,  but  still  a  weakness ;  and  an  im- 
peachment, so  far,  of  the  title  asserted  for  him  by  his 
friends  to  have  his  place  assigned  him  among  the  really 
"  great"  men  of  this  age.  It  is  simply  a  question  as  to 
what  constitutes  true  greatness.  In  the  common  judg- 
ment of  the  learned  world,  this  distinction  belongs  by 
pre-eminence  to  pure  intellect  in  its  loftiest  manifesta- 
tions, as,  e.  g.,  in  the  case  of  Thomas  Aquinas  or  Kant. 
Others  would  enthrone  in  their  Pantheon  the  men  who 
combine  with  rare  intellectual  gifts,  rich  stores  of 
knowledge,  a  wide  range  of  literary  accomplishment, 
and  a  voice  or  pen  that  can  instruct  and  fiiscinate  whole 


67 

nations — like  Cicero  or  Goethe.  Others  still,  t.-night  in 
a  better  school,  would  have  an  intellectual  Colossus,  not 
only  decorated  with  the  triumphs  and  trophies  of  genius, 
but  animated  by  a  spirit  of  genuine  piety — devout  and 
conscientious — "  walking  uprightly,  working  righteous- 
ness, and  speaking  the  truth,"  meeting  all  the  claims  of 
justice  and  equity,  and  really  kind  at  heart,  albeit  stern, 
phlegmatic,  unsympathizing.  No  one  would  refuse  to 
accord  the  epithet  "great"  to  the  choice  spirits  who 
make  up  any  one  of  these  classes  ;  but  do  they,  singly 
or  united,  supply  all  the  attributes  essential  to  consti- 
tute the  highest  type  of  greatness  ?  Can  it  be  necessary 
to  answer  this  question,  with  the  New  Testament  open 
before  us  ?  The  world  has  seen,  since  the  fall,  but  one 
perfect  man.  If  you  deify  intellectual  force,  vast  eru- 
dition, philosophic  penetration,  here  is  ONE  upon  all 
whose  faculties  is  the  stamp  of  infinitude ;  whose  mind 
holds  in  its  grasp  all  time  and  all  space ;  who  guides 
alike  the  stars  in  their  orbits,  and  the  pollen  that  floats 
through  the  summer  air ;  and  in  comparison  with  whom 
the  magnates  of  your  eulogy  are  but  nursery-striplings. 
Yet  where  will  you  find  such  meekness,  such  humility, 
such  afi'ectionateness  ?  What  language  have  you  to 
describe  His  ineffable  tenderness,  His  gentle  bearing 
towards  the  erring.  His  ready  sympathy  with  every 
form  of  sorrow  and  suffering,  His  overflowing  love  to- 
wards friends  and  foes,  His  delight  in  little  children — 
in  a  word,  that  whole  life  which  was  in  truth  a  child- 
life  ?  No  one,  standing  in  the  presence  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  will  have  the  presumption  to  deny  that 
we  have  here  the  very  highest  style  of  humanity  ; 
and  that  these  milder  graces  are  just  as  indispen- 
sable   to    its    completeness,   as    that    array    of   grand 


68 

intellectual  endowments  to  which  the  world  pays  will- 
ing homage. 

Now  why  do  I  introduce  our  blessed  Saviour  upon 
this  scene  ?  Is  it  that  we  may  challenge  for  our  friend 
whom  we  to-day  commemorate,  the  first  place  among 
the  great  men  of  our  race  ?  Is  it  that  we  may  exalt 
him  above  this  or  that  illustrious  philosopher  or  theolo- 
gian in  or  out  of  the  church  ?  Far  from  it.  It  is  sim- 
ply to  show  that  his  true  position  is  among  the  very 
foremost  of  a  class  never  large,  and  augmented  by  only 
a  few  names  in  the  course  of  a  century,  who  illustrate 
the  supreme  type  of  greatness — a  type  which  demands 
the  union  of  the  rarest  mental  power,  with  self-abnega- 
tion, patience,  kindliness,  and  a  feminine  tenderness  of 
disposition.  The  combination  of  strength  and  gentle- 
ness in  his  character  was  not  merely  conspicuous ;  it 
was  transcendent :  as  among  the  men  whom  we  may, 
any  of  us,  have  known,  it  was  unequalled — unap- 
proached.  It  was  the  admiration  of  all  who  met  him. 
It  "was  the  charm  that  captivated  his  friends.  It  was 
the  secret  of  that  magnetic  power  which  he  exerted 
over  so  many  hearts.  It  was  at  once  the  fruit  and 
the  evidence  of  his  close  assimilation  to  that  loving 
Saviour  in  whose  love  he  rejoiced  with  a  joy  unspeak- 
able and  full  of  glory.  The  mind  struggles  in  vain  to 
conceive  what  must  be  the  rapture  of  such  a  soul  on 
being  received  into  a  world  whose  very  atmosphere  is 
love — into  the  immediate  presence  of  that  adored  Re- 
deemer, whose  nature  is  the  same  as  when  He  wept  with 
the  sisters  of  Bethany,  at  the  very  moment  He  was 
about  to  command  the  grave  to  give  back  its  dead. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  true  criterion  of  Dr.  Hodge's 
greatness.     It  is  not  questioned  that  there  have  been 


men  of  still  loftier  intellectual  culture,  nor  that  there 
are  names  still  more  suggestive  of  universal  knowledge. 
But  no  example  is  recalled  in  which  an  imperial  intel- 
lect, mature  scholarship,  a  creative  imagination,  acute 
sensibility,  taste,  atfectionateness,  sterling  humor,  ii 
soldier's  courage  and  a  woman's  gentleness,  the  Iresh- 
ness  of  youthful  feeling  unimpaii-ed  at  fourscore,  and 
all  the  graces  of  the  Spirit,  were  more  exquisitely 
blended.  In  the  perfect  harmony  of  his  mental  and 
moral  powers,  the  purity  and  benevolence  of  his  life, 
the  wisdom  and  felicity  of  his  doctrine,  and  the  charm 
of  his  conversation,  we  recognize  the  completeness  of  a 
character,  the  like  of  which  we  do  not  expect  to  see 
this  side  of  heaven.  From  our  heart  of  hearts  we  ren- 
der thanks  to  that  God  who  made  him  what  he  was, 
and  blessed  the  church  with  his  presence  for  eighty 
years. 

When  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander  was  about  to  die,  he 
said  to  his  son,  "  I  have  never  before  seen  a  time  so 
suitable  for  my  departure."  May  we  not  say  the  same 
of  his  revered  successor  ?  Ilis  great  Treatise,  for  which 
the  Church  had  waited  with  many  hopes  and  fears,  had 
been  finished.  The  Seminary,  with  its  full  corps  of 
able  professors,  its  increased  endowment  and  new  build- 
ings, was  never  more  prosperous.  His  sons  had  come 
to  honor,  and  were  already  taking  up  and  carrying  for- 
ward his  work.  His  faculties  were  in  full  vigor.  And 
his  image,  in  all  its  lineaments,  w\as  just  that  which 
those  nearest  his  heart  would  most  love  to  hold  in  last- 
ing remembrance.  The  completeness  of  his  character 
found  its  complement  in  the  completeness  of  his  life. 
And  as  faith  enjoins,  so  reason  must  confirm  the  senti- 
ment, that  in  this,  as  in  all  His  dispensations,  God's 


70 

time  was  the  best  time.  With  reverent  hearts  we 
accept  the  lesson.  But  "  we  cannot  repress  a  sense  of 
privation  partaking  of  desolateness.  An  animating  in- 
fluence that  pervaded,  and  enlarged,  and  raised  our 
minds,  is  extinct.  While  ready  to  give  due  honor  to 
all  valuable  teachers,  and  knowing  that  the  lights  of 
religious  instruction  will  still  shine  with  useful  lustre, 
and  new  ones  continually  rise,  we  involuntarily  and  jjen- 
sively  turn  to  look  at  the  last  fading  colors  in  the  distance 
tvhere  the  greater  luminary  has  set."^' 

*  John  Foster  on  Robert  Hall. 


MINUTE 


ADOPTED   BY   THE 


BOARD   OF   DIRECTORS 


PEIJSrOETOl^  THEOLOGICAL  SEMDnTAEY, 


ANNUAL  MEETING,  HELD  APRIL  29,  1879. 


MINUTE. 


The  Reverend  Charles  Hodge,  Doctor  of  Divinity. 
Doctor  of  Laws,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  December  27. 
1797.  He  graduated  at  the  College  of  New  Jersey  with 
the  highest  honor,  in  1815.  Having  spent  three  years 
as  a  student  in  this  Seminary,  graduating  in  the  Class  of 
1819,  he  was  appointed  by  this  Board,  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing, Assistant  Teaclw  of  the  Original  Languages  of 
Scripture.  In  the  year  1822,  he  was  elected  by  the 
General  Assembly,  Professor  of  Oriental  and  Biblical 
Literature.  In  the  year  1840,  he  was  transferred  to  the 
chair  of  Didactic  Theology.  This  position  he  filled 
until  his  death,  June  19,  1878. 

His  entire  professional  life  was  thus  passed  as  an  in- 
structor of  students  in  this  institution.  About  three 
thousand  young  men  were  prepared,  largely  under  his 
influence  and  tuition,  for  the  ministry  of  the  Gosi)el.  By 
these,  his  name  is  affectionately  cherished  as  a  house- 
hold word  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 

From  the  day  of  his  appointment  as  Assistant  In- 
structor, he  enjoyed  the  confidence,  alike  of  his  col- 
leagues, of  the  members  of  this  Board,  of  the  students 
under  his  charge,  and  of  the  entire  church.  To  this 
confidence  were  soon  added  profound  respect  and  admi- 
ration ;  while  from  the  generation  who  knew  him  in  his 
ripest  years,  came  the  homage  of  grateful  and  reverent 
affection. 


74 

The  tribute,  thus  gladly  paid  by  successive  genera- 
tions, was  justified  by  his  talents  and  attainments  ;  by 
his  labors  as  teacher  and  author;  by  his  consecration  of 
all  his  endowments  to  the  service  of  Christ  and  the 
Truth ;  by  his  exalted  Christian  character  and  his  con- 
sistent Christian  life ;  by  his  humility  before  God,  and 
his  love  for  men. 

As  a  Teacher,  whether  of  Biblical  Literature  or  of 
Systematic  Theology,  it  was  his  single  aim,  as  it  was  his 
chief  success,  to  deepen  the  interest  of  his  students  in 
Divine  Truth,  as  revealed  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  to 
impress  them  with  a  profound  sense  of  its  supreme  im- 
portance, as  against  all  speculations  and  theories  of  the 
human  mind. 

As  an  Author,  his  large  and  accurate  learning,  his 
wide  intellectual  sympathies,  embracing  almost  every 
department  of  knowledge,  his  perfect  candor,  his  loyalty 
to  truth,  and  his  imperial  mental  endowments,  entitle 
him  to  a  place  in  history  among  the  foremost  expounders 
and  defenders  of  the  Faith  delivered  to  the  Saints. 

These  great  intellectual  gifts,  and  traits,  and  attain- 
ments, he  exercised  and  employed  under  the  absolute 
direction  of  his  implicit  faith  in  the  revealed  Word  of 
God.  Standing  in  the  succession  of  the  apostolic  and 
historic  theologians  of  the  Church,  in  virtue  of  his  mas- 
terly exposition  and  defence  of  the  Nicene  Theology, 
the  Augustinian  Anthropology,  and  the  Reformed  Sote- 
riology  as  announced  in  the  Westminster  Symbols,  he 
tried  them  by,  and  found  their  highest  defence  in  their 
harmony  with,  the  teachings  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures ; 
whose  plenary  inspiration,  and  absolute  authority  as  the 
infallible  rule  of  faith  and  duty,  he  thoroughly  believed 
and  distinctly  taught. 


75 

His  Christian  experience  was  profound  and  vivid. 
Like  his  theological  instruction,  it  was  distinguished  l)y 
its  scriptural  character.  As  in  the  class-room  and  in  his 
writings,  he  expounded  the  written  Word,  in  which  he 
implicitly  believed;  so  in  his  life,  he  reproduced  the 
s[»irit  of  the  living  Word,  in  whom  he  trusted  as  his  Re- 
deemer, and  whom  he  obeyed  as  his  Lord. 

To  his  personal  character,  formed  by  this  Christian 
experience,  and  manifested  in  his  relations  to  the  mem- 
bers of  this  Board,  we  cannot  refer,  as  we  cannot  recall 
it,  without  profound  gratitude  to  God  that  we  were  per- 
mitted intimately  to  know  him,  and  without  a  deep 
sense  of  the  incalculable  loss  that  each  of  us  has  sus- 
tained. His  unsullied  honor,  his  unbending  integrity, 
his  large  affection,  his  tender  sympathy,  and  his  fidelity 
to  every  public  and  personal  interest  committed  to  his 
keeping,  endeared  him,  beyond  adequate  expression,  to 
all  who  knew  him. 

Lamenting  our  own  loss,  we  mourn  the  loss  of  the 
Church  of  Christ ;  and  we  offer  the  expression  of  our 
sympathy  to  those  most  deeply  bereaved  in  his  death. 

"  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  ;  yea, 
saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors  ; 
and  their  works  do  follow  them." 


'^. 


PAMPHUT  BINDER 

^^    Syrocuie.   N     Y. 
^^    S.ockion.  Col.f. 


DATE  DUE 


FACULTY 


^00^S^^'. 


mpf'iT 


NW7i(ns»* 


?^^M 


1    1012  01034  0653 


.S^'&si 


